Appearing at a town hall meeting in Detroit on Monday, Gov. Granholm discussed how stimulus funds will affect the state budget and conspicuously declined to talk about the ongoing controversy over the future of Cobo Hall. The Detroit Free Press reports:
Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Monday there’s little appetite in Lansing to reopen the debate over control of Cobo Center after the Detroit City Council rejected a regional authority approved by the Legislature.
“Everybody needs to take the temperature down,” she said. “The first step is the mayor and the City Council need to be on the same page.”
The town hall meeting was held at Fellowship Chapel in Detroit and the host of the event, Detroit NAACP president Rev. Wendell Anthony, specifically asked the audience not to bring up the Cobo Hall issue in their questions to the governor.
She was more forthcoming about how stimulus funds will affect the state budget, saying that some discretionary funds will likely be used to reduce the deficit to avoid having to cut the budget as much. The state is facing a $1.6 billion deficit this year, which must be balanced under the state constitution.
The governor indicated that some political compromise was necessary. With about $2 billion in discretionary funds available, it remains to be seen how much of that money will be used to cut the deficit, as the Democrats want, and how much for a tax cut, as the Republicans want. But Granholm did tell the audience, “I think they’re both going to get their wish.”
