Gov. Snyder struggles to find support to save Detroit schools

DETROIT - Legislation to revamp the Detroit Public Schools was supposed to be introduced in the state senate today, but it was not. The governor is struggling to find the votes to pass it.

“The votes aren't there,” said Sen. Morris Hood (D-Detroit). “We are working on trying to get it there.”

The governor has been trying for seven months to corral the votes to buy down the Detroit school's $720 million deficit.  He has refused to rule out taking money from other districts to do that.

Many lawmakers oppose that.

“Anything that takes money away from the schools in my district is not going to be something I’m supporting,” said Sen. Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton).

Given a chance to say he won't do that, the governor did not.

“I don’t know. If you look at the operations of many of the proposals they would come from the school aid fund,” said Gov. Rick Snyder.

This democrat thinks the money could come from the U.S. tobacco settlement or the rainy day fund.

This republicans says, no way.

“I want to build up the rainy day fund so that would be the last place we'd go to use,” said Sen. David Hildenbrand (R-Senate budget chair). 

Fox 2: What about tobacco settlement?

Sen. Hildenbrand: “It’s not a place I'd go.”

To make matters worse, some conservative Republicans don’t want to send any money to Detroit schools because of its alleged history of mishandling funds.

“If history is any indication of the future we would be dumping a quarter of a billion dollars into a system that does not work,” said Sen. Joe Hune (R-Brighton).

Fox 2: You want to make sure the money is spent wisely?

Sen. Hune: “I don’t know what safeguards you can put in place.”

The governor was going to introduce the bill today. He did not which is usually a sign that the package is in trouble.