Last Thursday, the Senate and the House passed the last of the budgets for the 2009-10 fiscal year. They passed the School Aid budget by lowering the cut from 2.9% to 2.3%.
With that action, the House and Senate were able to live up to the agreement that Senate Majority Leader Bishop and House Speaker Dillon agreed to when they came up with a plan to balance the budget based on cuts and not tax increases.
Governor Granholm has signed most of the less contentious budgets with few vetoes. Unlike regular bills, the governor is allowed to strike parts of appropriations bills, if she does not agree with what has been presented to her.
The remaining budgets should be presented to the Governor next week. From the start, Governor Granholm has indicated that she does not support the all cuts approach of the legislative leaders. She has stated that the cuts are too large and there should be some sort of revenue enhancements to stave off some of the cuts.
The Governor is expected to veto perhaps whole sections of the budgets that remain. However, it should be noted that she cannot add money into the budgets; she can only remove what is there.
We will keep you posted on developments as they unfold before the next budget deadline of October 31.
Please see other stories related to the budget.