OK, it wasn't a rock. It was a letter.
Darn.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in a confidential letter to legislative leaders that arrived today, strongly urged them to cancel the two-week summer break slated to start next week and remain in town to address the state's growing budget deficit, in part by raising $1.5 billion in new taxes.
Cue the Drama Club.
"The Senate will not be bullied into making rash decisions that will affect Michigan for decades to come," said spokesman Matt Marsden, who said the break will proceed as planned.
Geez, Matt. Overreact much? Decades to come? Or until next year when we get to do this dance all over again?
Granholm is such a bully. Asking them to do their jobs. How horrible is that. Especially since she's so "disengaged" and all.
You guys really need to settle on what names you are going to call her, because you are all over the board at this point.
Next, they basically said she's lying.
Granholm's letter also said there was an agreement to increase the sales tax from 3.9 percent to 4.1 percent and to expand the state sales tax to services currently exempt."That's completely false," Marsden said. "How do we know how much we need to raise if we don't know how much can be saved through the reforms the Senate is pursuing?"
And from Bishop.
"There's not any truth in the letter," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop told reporters. "There was no agreement, nothing close to an agreement. For her to suggest otherwise is just an outright mistruth."
Really? Nothing even close? They just rolled right over for everything you wanted? Wonder why you didn't crow about that at the time, Mike.
Cue Liz Boyd.
Liz Boyd, press secretary to the governor, said the legislative leaders all signed onto the agreement -- including new taxes -- in late May when an agreement was announced to plug an $800 million hole in the current budget. She said with a shortfall of at least $1.6 billion in the budget year starting Oct. 1, the governor would never have agreed to a current year budget fix that didn't also include actions to deal with the upcoming budget problem.
Seems right. A certain blogger even said so back in May, citing numerous press articles. Peter Luke said it just recently, too. Gongwer said it just last week.
So, how did all these people come to this conclusion that the Republicans now claim is "completely false"?
Yeah. Right. We're all just crazy.
Or perhaps it's the Republicans now doing the lying, trying to drag this on for as long as they possibly can. That explains the overreaction from Marsden.
It also seems that there were three people involved here.
Mr. Dillon, would you care to comment? Was there a deal or not?
Andy? Hello?
Going to back up your governor? Going to back up your party? Or are you going to sell us all down the river for your Republican friends?
Stay tuned...
UPDATE: From MIRS (sub only) tonight- another witness, John Cherry. Forgot that she sent him in to deal with Bishop.
"I've been negotiating reforms for three weeks now, and now I read in MIRS this morning that the Senate is going to spend the summer putting a list of reforms together," Cherry said. "It makes me wonder what I've been negotiating on for the last three weeks. It makes me wonder how disingenuous this whole process has been."
And on the agreement, in a teleconference with reporters-
I kind of want to reiterate that the agreement is as she described it and I clearly want to be available to you for questions if you have them.
And from the AP- we finally get this from Dillon.
A spokesman for Dillon said he won't comment on ongoing negotiations.
You're a real pal, Andy. Thanks for all your support.
So. Is it possible to remove him as House Leader? How do we go about doing that?