Senate faces working break as they prepare to return June 30 after a week off

The Michigan Senate won’t be in session this week, but it’s a fair bet GOP caucus members will be batting around road funding.  Following House passage of a road-funding proposal that relies heavily on existing resources, the ball is now in the Senate.  The question is how much the caucus of 27 GOP senators is willing to raise new revenues.  

“I took the hard votes last session, and quite frankly, I will do what it takes to get a solution this time,” said Sen. Jim Marleau (R-Lake Orion). “We’re working on that solution. It comes in many different forms. We have 27 people in our caucus, which means there are 27 different ideas.” 

Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton) contends the May 5 vote was clear about tax hikes. 

“What Proposal 1 showed us is that people don’t want their taxes raised, and they want us to come up with the money from other areas of the budget,” she said. “Every option is on the table, but it doesn’t appear that this is the direction the Senate is going right now.”

The Senate has promised to deliver a road-funding plan in July.