LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she and Republican legislative leaders are “desperate” to avoid a government shutdown, and she may propose a stopgap budget measure as long as there are “good-faith” negotiations about spending more to fix the roads.
The Democrat helped to inspect a Lansing bridge Monday, her latest effort to bring attention to deteriorating infrastructure. She says she met with GOP leaders Friday and anticipates seeing their road-funding counterproposal in the next week or so.
Her proposed 45-cents-a-gallon fuel tax increase, unveiled in March, has gone nowhere in the Republican-led Legislature. The next fiscal year starts Oct. 1, and lawmakers have not finalized a budget due to the impasse over road funding.
Whitmer says “we’ve got to get serious about negotiating.”
