Governor Gretchen Whitmer has vetoed $375 million in one-time road funding. The governor finished signing all 16 state budgets hours before the October 1st deadline.
Whitmer says she had to make the 147 line-item vetoes to protect Michigan residents. In a recorded statement on Instagram, Whitmer said the budgets sent to her by the Republican-controlled Legislature were “built on phony numbers, using funds in the wrong way, usurping executive power. These are important things that I had to eliminate from these budgets.”
Whitmer also vetoed more than $100 million in the School Aid budget. She says that includes extra spending that would have gone to commercial vendors instead of classrooms.
State Senator Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) supports the one-time road funding veto. He says the state can’t keep putting short-term money toward a long-term problem.
“A veto of $375 million is not significant when we face a $2.5 billion problem. It would literally leave the same potholes intact that people drive over every day,” he says.
Whitmer had called for a long-term road funding plan to put more than two billion dollars toward the roads. But negotiations broke down.
Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) says he hopes Whitmer will now come back to the negotiating table.
Whitmer had minimal input in the budgets that hit her desk. Negotiations between the Legislature and Whitmer broke down, and the Legislature went forward without her.
The governor likely isn’t done reworking the budget. The State Administrative Board is made up of fellow Democrats and members of Whitmer’s administration. It’s scheduled to meet on Tuesday morning. That board has the power to move money around within departments, without approval of the Legislature.
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