Gov to State Employees: “Show Up Tuesday”

State employees have been told to report to work as usual Tuesday morning.

The memo issued by Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer late Friday is an indication that she will not issue wholesale vetoes of the state budget bills that were passed by the Republican-led House and Senate, and have all now been officially presented to her.

Her signatures would forestall a partial government shutdown when the current fiscal year ends Monday night. 

The governor still has two options she can employ to address parts of the bills she doesn’t like.

First, she can use her line-item veto power to eliminate specific appropriations. Such vetoes could be overridden by the legislature, but a two-thirds majority vote would be needed. Republicans do not hold that large an advantage.

Whitmer can also use the State Administrative Board to shift allocations within each department. Republican Governor John Engler attempted to use that procedure early in his administration. He abandoned it after Democrats agreed to a compromise on the issue in question, but a court later ruled that the procedure is legal.