(WWJ) A day before the new fiscal year begins, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has the final $59 billion state budget on her desk this morning for her signature.
While Republican lawmakers approved the budget without her input, WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick says the governor still has the final say. And notably, the budget does not her include her proposed 45 cent gas tax to pay for accelerated road repairs.
The governor has line-item veto power over inclusions that she wants to exise from the budget. So, what will she do?
"I don't know, it could be 50 vetoes, it could be five vetoes," WWJ's Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick said.
Either way, we'll know the answer by midnight tonight, which is the budget approval deadline. The governor assured employees on Friday a budget will be approved and there will be no government shutdown.
"This has been an extremely challenging budget cycle. The Governor and the State Budget Office staff will be working around the clock this weekend to finish getting all the budgets ready. The Governor will be exercising the powers that she can to get ourbudget into the best possible shape with what has been presented," she wrote to employees. She also thanked them for their hard work.
House and Senate Republicans are short a two-thirds majority needed to override a veto by the governor.