Granholm plans to veto spending bill 1081

LANSING (AP): According to the office of Gov. Jennifer Granholm, she will veto a bill that would have allowed several universities and community colleges to tap special state funding for building or renovation projects, her spokeswoman said Friday.

The capital outlay budget would have allowed the schools to get money from the sale of state building authority bonds for a variety of projects.

Granholm will reject the bill because lawmakers have not yet addressed a deficit looming from the early elimination of the state’s Single Business Tax, spokeswoman Liz Boyd said.

The SBT will be eliminated at the end of 2007, two years earlier than previously scheduled. The tax brings in nearly $2 billion a year for the state.

Boyd said it was ``unacceptable'' for the Legislature to OK a capital outlay bill without first having approved an SBT replacement bill.

Ari Adler, a spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema of Wyoming, said Granholm has a double standard on the issue. Granholm pushed lawmakers to approve a more expensive college scholarship plan and to adopt an earned income tax credit, both of which will cost the state millions of dollars, Adler said.

The capital outlay bill is Senate Bill 1081.