BY LAURA WEBER
Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING - Governor Jennifer Granholm is expected to make additional line-item vetoes to budgets by the end of the week. And she's calling for Senate Republicans to approve new revenue plans designed to fill cuts to K-12 schools, Medicaid and local governments.
But Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop says the Senate has approved its revenue plan, and Democrats can "take it or leave it."
[Audio]
Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon unfolds a piece of paper outlining the Senate plan for new revenue.
"This is what they sent me - I mean this may be 10, 11 million dollars that they sent over. I'll send that back, but we've still got a problem," said Dillon.
The problem lawmakers are facing is how to restore hundreds of millions of dollars cut from the K-12 schools budget. Dillon says he's concerned that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop's "rhetoric is becoming firmer" against new revenue proposed by Democrats. Bishop says that Democratic "new revenue" really means "tax hikes."
Governor Granholm says all parties have to make compromises.
"People have to be willing, semantically, to get away from the notion that any revenue is a tax," she says.
But Bishop says Senate Republicans will not vote to fill any additional cuts to budgets made by the governor.
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