Kids are back at school, lawmakers are back at work. And the budget deadline looms after a slow summer for the Michigan legislature.
"Unfortunately, we are seven weeks into the school year and our schools don't know what they're working with," said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) during a press briefing at Meadowlawn Elementary School in Kentwood.
She was focused on two serious crises in Michigan: Infrastructure and Education.
She says taking one, to address another is unacceptable.
"We have to do both and it's not going to be easy. But I've put a plan on the table that actually cleans up drinking water, closes the skills gap, educates kids and fixes the damn roads."
Republicans have rejected Gov. Whitmer's proposal for a 45-cent gas tax increase for funding infrastructure in her budget plan. Whitmer's said she is disappointed that legislators took the summer off, leaving no meaningful alternative plans on the table to finalize the state budget or fix the infrastructure crisis.
"We have a lot of work to do in a very short period of time now,and if we bump up against getting the budget done on time it's going to be months like the last two where they took a vacation and didn't get the work done to blame."
The $56.8 billion dollar budget is set to expire on Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year begins. If no budget is agreed to before then, the state government would go into shutdown.
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