Governor Rick Snyder’s early June deadline to finish the budget, come up with more money for roads, and expand the Medicaid program is fast approaching.
But as we hear from The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta, making that target could be hurt by political fights in the Legislature.
The fighting came to a head this week when Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger took the unprecedented step of stripping several Democrats of their committee assignments.
The governor says he won’t step in to try to resolve a dispute in a separate branch of government. But he also says the fighting does not help solve Michigan’s problems.
“I don’t believe in fighting,” he says. “It’s really a matter of saying, what’s the problem we’re trying to solve and let’s try to solve that.”
The governor says he’s waiting, in particular, on Democrats to share some specific ideas on road funding. There aren’t enough Republicans right now willing to support raising additional revenue. Democrats say they want some assurances first that the governor and Republican leaders won’t pursue new anti-union measures.