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Whitmer Signs Budget With Line Item Vetoes
By: Mike Stiles - Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (photo courtesy of Michigan.gov)

(LANSING) – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the 16 different State budgets on Monday, but also cut nearly $1 billion from the plan.

With just hours to spare before a government shut down, Whitmer signed the budgets. In doing so, she used her line item veto authority 147 times in the different departmental budgets. That included slashing $375 million in one time road funding and $128 million in the School Aid budget.

Whitmer staff members say the vetoes totaled $947 million in cuts from the total $59.9 billion budget. More information on those cuts will be made public later today.

In a post to her Twitter account, Whitmer explains that she used the line item vetoes to try and clean up budgets that were a complete mess, built on phony numbers and using funds in the wrong way. She says these were important things she had to eliminate from these budgets.

The $400 million in one time road funding had $68 million earmarked for bridges that Whitmer toured over the summer. On social media, Whitmer says the need in the State was greater than just four bridges.

The response from Republican lawmakers, including Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield was swift and direct. Chatfield called the budget impasse silly, which happened after negotiations with Whitmer broke down weeks ago.

More details are expected to unfold this morning during a State Administrative Board meeting. Whitmer could use the Board to shift money within a department, moving it from what the Legislature intended it to be spent on, to better reflect her own plans.

Former Governor John Engler used the Administrative Board to shift money in a department budget in 1991. The move was challenged and in 1993 the Michigan Supreme Court ruled it was legal.

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