While negotiations on a proposal to backfill revenue sharing and other programs cut in the '09 budget continue in both chambers (read more), the governor spoke out to legislators for essentially holding your community and the people of Michigan hostage with a budget that does not fund public safety. Please read the governor's remarks and tell your local media why the Legislature must act quickly:
The budget does not become law until I sign all of the budget bills. I have signed the ones that the House has sent to me. But Senator Bishop is holding onto the six major budgets. Those budgets are the budgets he asked for. They have been passed by both chambers. They have been given immediate effect. But until he actually gives them to me, I cannot sign them and therefore they cannot become law. The Constitution requires that he deliver passed budgets to me. For as long as anyone can remember, this kind of delay in Michigan has never happened. Never. Why is he holding them? Because he is afraid that I am going to veto portions of them. His fear is justified. I will veto portions of them. This is no mystery. Until he delivers a supplemental budget that funds police officers and firefighters through revenue sharing . . . there is not enough money for all of the other things that are in the budget.
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