The battle for how and where Michigan’s chunk of the multi-billion dollar economic stimulus package will be spent is now fully underway. Although the governor finally released a list of proposals on the web Thursday morning, featuring 16,000 projects worth a combined $59 billion, legislators are still scrambling to find their place in the financial allocation process.
According to subscription-only capitol news service MIRS, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) is squaring off against Gov. Jennifer Granholm, claiming the legislature will appropriate and spend stimulus money. Political pundit Tim Skubick said,
“It is the Legislature that has the responsibility to step up and resolve where the money is going to go,” Bishop said. “If she wants to kick the constitution aside, that’s up to her to try to do.”
The governor says she is responsible for seeing the money distributed.
In addition to the Granholm-Bishop showdown, the Associated Press reported that Michigan Department of Transportation officials told the state Senate Transportation Committee yesterday that they could not see a list of transportation proposals until the governor’s office released her list. The list was released overnight on the web.
Michigan is expected to get about $18 billion of the entire $787 billion stimulus.