As the FY 2010 budget battle grows smaller and smaller in our rear view mirrors, many have forgotten that the Legislature is still working to reinstore funds lost to the draconian cuts imposed by the Republican controlled State Senate. While all the budgets have been approved, Governor Granholm has continued to voice her opposition to the cuts that were made.

Senate Democrats lea by Minority Leader Mike Prusi (D-Ishpeming) are working hard to put priority programs back into the budget. Near the top of Senator Prusi’s list is the Michigan Promise Scholarship, and if the Promise is to be reinstated, the Senate is exactly the place where the work must be done.  He sounded confident in a recent interview with MIRS News that, despite the Republican majority, there are the votes to reinstate the Promise, along with cuts in Medicaid and K-12 funding.

Of course, if Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester), had his way, no one would pay any taxes, leaving public universities to raise tuition by 120%, the impoverished to die from lack of health care, and public school students to never learn how to spell “ignorant Republican.” However, Senator Prusi is hoping to use the 30 day limit on the current budget to force Republicans to approve at least some revenue enhancers. For the Democrats now, their only hope is to run out the clock in a delicate game of brinkmanship. If the Republicans blink first, then we have our Promise back; if the Democrats fold, we’re left with a horribly underfunded educational system. And let’s just hope we don’t have to worry about what happens when no one calls the other’s bluff, but when we’re left to cower underneath the table by an obstructionist Senate, I’m inclined to take a page out of Jed Bartlets book and say, “Shut it down.”