LANSING – The Senate’s adjournment Tuesday until September 7 assured yet another budget would go into the last days of the fiscal year and now puts the government at risk of a third shutdown in four years unless Governor Jennifer Granholm and the Legislature can strike a deal before midnight October 1.

There had been some talk – overly rosy as it turns out – that at least work on resolving the current year 2009-10 deficit would be resolved this week. But the Senate, which had set tentative session days for Wednesday and Thursday, cancelled those sessions and adjourned until the day after Labor Day, September 7.

The Senate’s adjournment until then also kills proposed constitutional amendments that would have placed the state’s existing statutory ban on drilling for oil and gas beneath the Great Lakes into the Constitution. The deadline for the Legislature to adopt a constitutional amendment for it to make the November 2 ballot is September 2.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) said he expects target meetings to take place among the top negotiators between now and September 7 with the hope of getting conference committees to act on budget bills as soon as possible. There are some concerns with some aspects of Granholm’s plan, Bishop said, but lawmakers still need details on some pieces, such as opening up for bid the state’s liquor distribution.

Overall, Bishop said Senate Republicans want to pass as many cuts as they can to reduce the size of what he said is a $1 billion deficit for the 2011-12 fiscal year facing the next governor.

“We’d like to take as big a chunk out of that problem as we can,” he said.

Budget Director Bob Emerson said reaction to Granholm’s proposal has been mostly positive and he is encouraged that no one has outright rejected any aspects of it. But time is starting to run short, he said.

“I don’t know what’s going to occur over the next couple weeks,” he said. “There’s only five weeks left in the fiscal year.”

House Republicans do appear weary of accepting the governor’s plan to transfer $200 million from the School Aid Fund to pay community colleges in the current fiscal year.

Rep. Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham) and Rep. Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair) said they want reforms tied to the proposal, as well as a process to pay the SAF money back, before they’re willing to vote on the transfer.

A major piece that remains in question is the state employee retiree legislation (SB 1226 ) that is stuck in the Democratically led House. “We are still encouraging the House to do it,” Emerson said, acknowledging that there has been little to no progress on passage of the issue in the House.

Meanwhile, a House Democrat who has pushed for the constitutional amendment to strengthen the state’s ban on drilling beneath the Great Lakes for oil and gas blasted the Senate.

“Michigan’s waters are too important to our way of life and our economy to just throw it all away because the Senate wants to take even more time off of work,” said Rep. Daniel Scripps (D-Northport) said in a statement. “With the disaster in the Gulf and the recent oil spill in our own Kalamazoo River, it’s more important than ever that we protect our workers’ jobs and small businesses in Northwest Michigan and across the state from the economic ruin that an oil spill in our Great Lakes would cause. It’s too bad that the Senate has gone back on break without giving voters the power to safeguard our Great Lakes.”

But Senate Republican spokesperson Matt Marsden said such comments ignore the fact that drilling for oil and gas beneath the lakes is illegal, without the constitutional amendment.

“Just because it’s not going on the ballot does not mean people are going to see drilling in the Great Lakes anytime in the near future,” he said. “The current law as it stands protects our environment and protects our Great Lakes against being drilled in.”

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