Saturday, June 30, 2007

Freep: Don't play hostage with the state



I really can't add anything to this. Go read the whole thing.



State Senate Republicans are trying to hold Michigan hostage. How else to explain issuing a list of demands to be met before they will vote on any tax increase proposals?



Senate GOP Leader Mike Bishop ought to stop making demands and start dealing with reality. The state is hurting and, by extension, so is every university, school district, local government and service agency that depends on money from Lansing. A realistic state budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 must be enacted as soon as possible. That's going to require some give and take -- not demands and refusals and a lot of primping for the anti-tax crowd in advance of the 2008 elections.



Bishop's demands are particularly silly given that, at the beginning of the week, he was insisting that Gov. Jennifer Granholm could not force the Legislature to do anything. Just days later, he's trying to force the governor and the Democratric-controlled House to do things by threatening to withhold Senate action.



I believe that when Dillon didn't back up his team on the agreement, that gave Bishop the green light to go ahead and make his demands.



Looks like he overplayed his hand. Oops.



Glad the Freep sees it the same way I did.