When $525,000 in state funding was cut from a popular school truancy program she runs to help students in rural northeastern Michigan, Dorothy Pintar held off as long as possible on reducing staff.
Democratic and Republican leaders are hopeful they will reach a deal on a supplemental budget. But it looks like that won’t happen until after Thanksgiving. The House and Senate are on break. Though they have one tentative session day scheduled next week.
Lawmakers still harbor hard feelings and mistrust over Governor Whitmer’s budget vetoes and her use of an administrative board to move money from one program to another. The Legislature’s leadership has been meeting with the governor -- and Whitmer said they seemed close to a bargain.
Republicans in the Legislature have proposed what they say is a first step toward restoring widely unpopular budget cuts. Many of the cuts were enacted by a board controlled by Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Republicans who control Michigan’s Legislature say the state budget will not be resolved until Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer agrees to restrict her unilateral power to shift money within departments.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed undoing some of her budget vetoes Thursday, a move that a Democratic ally described as an “olive branch” to Republicans who run Michigan’s Legislature.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed a $59 billion state budget. She issued 147 line-item vetoes to block a series of Republican-supported measures. Kevin Lavery and Cheyna Roth discuss the School Aid budget.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been presented a budget by the state Legislature, but one area where Whitmer might have an issue with the budget is the state’s new redistricting commission.
The Republican-led Michigan Legislature on Thursday gave final approval to a K-12 budget that would boost base per-student funding for most schools by $240, or 3%.
