LANSING, Mich. – State lawmakers have found a way to work around Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's nearly $1 billion in budget cuts. They've plotted a number of options and one of them involves overriding some of her 147 line-item vetoesÂ
Whitmer cut and moved around about $1.5 billion. The Republican controlled legislature is looking to go to work on about a third of that. They're starting out by writing a couple of dozen new bills that would look to restore important funding.
While legislative leaders may have said last week the governor's budget is in and finished, Tuesday they decided they can't let it stand as is.
"We need to just fix some of the things that were most egregious at this point and continue to move forward," state Rep. Jason Sheppard of Monroe told Local 4.
It's a long list, 24 separate new bills will look to restore funding to things like opioid addiction, autism, rural hospitals, charter school funding, education and safety grants. One Sheppard is sponsoring has to do with secondary road patrols.
It will take a week or more for the new bills to make their way through the legislature. They likely have votes and then it's off to the governor. If she vetoes again then they're likely going for veto overrides.