Governor Rick Snyder is defending some of his controversial budget plans.
He says taxing pensions is the right thing to do, even though some Republican lawmakers say they will not support that plan.
And Governor Snyder says his proposal to cut funding for universities by 15% this year is necessary, but he says it will get better for the schools in the future:
"We shouldn't have to walk away from our universities. Again, I'm a big, long-term advocate of we need more students going through our universities. Higher Ed is very important in our state, actually we're a very fortunate state in having the high-quality institutions that we have. We have a tough budget situation and we need to deal with that, but if you look forward to 2013 we’re able to show that hopefully this is the bottom point in terms of where we go with higher education funding."
Snyder also told building-trade union members that he wants to work with unions to help balance the budget, not against them.
He says he is not interested in Republican proposals in the Legislature to strip unions of their power.
