From the mailbox-
LANSING – Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and Speaker Andy Dillon today said they are committed to protecting kids and schools from draconian budget cuts this late in the school year and urged Senate Republicans to continue working on a comprehensive solution to the budget crisis facing the state.
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“We are committed to a comprehensive solution that guarantees long-term stability for our state,” Granholm and Dillon added. “We are not willing to sign on to a three-day solution that puts us back to square-one on Friday. We encourage Senator Bishop to meet with us in the morning, as scheduled, and to continue meeting until a resolution is reached.”
There was no deal, although Bishop still says there was.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, the top Republican at the Capitol, had said the GOP and Democrats could sign an agreement at a conference committee held late Tuesday. But he adjourned the meeting because no agreement was reached.
"We had a deal," Bishop said.
Who is this "we"? And a deal on what?
Apparently the "deal" was that we give up everything to the Republicans now, and then they can jack us around again on next year's budget, too.
Uh, yeah, sounds like a great deal, Senator.
A source familiar with negotiations said Granholm asked Bishop to agree to a $1.8 billion tax increase for the budget year that starts Oct. 1 or she wouldn't sign off on a cuts-only solution to this year's budget. Bishop said no thanks, according to the source.
"We continue to push for a reasonable solution to our budget crisis that includes cuts, government reform, and revenue. We cannot cut our way out of this crisis, and we must make Michigan competitive, we must invest in the things that make Michigan great," Granholm and House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford, said in a joint statement.
Asked whether the governor attempted to extract a promise from him to agree to a tax increase next year in exchange for a deal on cuts for the current year, Bishop said: "That was part of an internal discussion."
But Bishop said after the conference committee meeting: "I simply refuse to be held hostage to a threat from the governor who has said she can't allow her members to sign this report because she can't get a tax increase."
And it looks like Granholm simply refuses to let our state be held hostage by a lying punk like Bishop.
Good.
Stick to your guns, people.