Roundup: Governor Whitmer appears to be left out of budget negotiations

The budget for K-12 schools from the House has been passed with some bi-partisan cooperation. Governor Whitmer is not completely thrilled, but House Democrats were on board. Here to talk about the state budget are Ken Sikkema, a senior policy fellow for Public Sector Consultants and T.J. Bucholz the p...

Did Whitmer 'cave'?

The first-term Democrat unveiled a budget in March that proposed to fix roads by raising fuel taxes from 26.3-cents to 71.3-cents per gallon in three phases and would have generated $2.5 billion a year once fully implemented in 2021. 

The Republican-led Legislature balked at the fuel tax plan. GOP leaders have not publicly proposed any long-term road fu...

Republican State House Speaker Lee Chatfield says he’s optimistic about a road funding deal coming through before the October 1 budget deadline. The Michigan House Minority Leader, Democrat Christine Greig, says Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed 45-cent fuel tax increase is basically dead. So where does that leave the governor? We discuss with our Friday political com...

Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer and state Republican legislative leaders are talking, but there’s not yet real movement on finding money to fix the roads. The Governor wants to increase fuel taxes. The Republicans want to shift the sales tax part of taxes on gasoline to fund the roads, but that means schools and municipalities lose money.

We discuss what it will take...

After months of debate in Lansing, Michigan could finally see an agreement on how to fix the state’s roads. According to State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, the Michigan Legislature is making progress in talks with Governor Whitmer about road funding.