By Rick Pluta
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-868366.mp3
Lansing, MI – Governor Granholm signed the last of the bills Friday that make up the new state budget. The governor made 75 line item vetoes, but could not restore money for cuts she opposed that were forced on her by the Legislature.
The governor says she will make her case to the public that more revenue is needed to reverse cuts to Medicaid, local governments, schools, and college scholarships. Granholm says she's counting on people speaking up when teachers, police officers and firefighters are laid off, and when tuition bills come due.
The governor says responsibility for the budget cuts belongs to Senate Republicans who won't support new revenue, "This is the budget we have, but it is not the budget we need. It's a budget that I don't agree with and I do not support."
The governor says she would have vetoed more to try and force Republicans to negotiate, but she says she believed GOP leaders who said they would not restore bigger cuts to revenue sharing and schools, and the threat of that would not bring them to the table.