The Michigan Senate voted 36-1 to override Republican Gov. John Engler's veto of the aid, less than an hour after the override passed the House by a vote of 105-1. A vote of two-thirds was required in each chamber.
At issue was Engler's veto of $845 million in revenue-sharing payments for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Engler said he vetoed the money because of the chance three ballot proposals could pass in November, potentially costing $1 billion he says the state doesn't have.
The ballot proposals would overhaul the state's drug-crime sentencing, require most tobacco settlement money to be spent on health care and guarantee collective bargaining for state employees.
The votes came a few hours after 2,000 local government workers gathered in front of the state Capitol to protest the veto. Local officials had warned they would have to cut services such as police and fire protection and parks programs if the veto wasn't overridden.
It was the first veto overridden in the state since 1977, when Republican Gov. William Milliken was rebuffed by legislative Democrats in a dispute over an obscure legislative rules law.
Tuesday's vote was the first time in more than half a century that a governor had been overridden by a Legislature controlled by his own party.
Many lawmakers said they were upset Engler went back on an agreement to keep revenue sharing at this year's level in the 2003 budget year, which begins Oct. 1.
Under the deal between Engler and legislators, the money was to be kept in the budget if lawmakers increased the cigarette tax, made a number of cuts and delayed a business tax cut scheduled for Jan. 1. Lawmakers had approved those steps.
Only Rep. Andrew Richner and Sen. Harry Gast, both Republicans, voted against the override.
Richner said he did so because he agreed with Engler that the ballot proposals could hurt the state budget.
"I was standing up for higher education and all the other budget priorities," Richner said. "The ballot proposals are going to cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars."
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