By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING, MI – Governor Granholm will host another meeting with legislative leaders today to try and come up with a budget compromise. The deadline for finishing the budget is less than a month away.
The governor has called for the talks to go into the night, if necessary.
Granholm says an agreement appears close, but GOP leaders say that's not the case.
The governor says the talks are focused on choosing from a menu of spending cuts, eliminating tax breaks, and other options for raising revenue to retire a deficit of nearly $3 billion.
"This is a huge, huge gap, and I believe that we will make progress, but it's not going to happen overnight, so we're going to work at it every day until we get an agreement," Granholm says.
Republicans say they want to see in writing the governor's plans for raising revenue. GOP leaders have put forward a budget proposal that includes cuts totaling $1.2 billion, but it does not raise any taxes.