In the immortal words of Karen Carpenter, we’ve only just begun.

“The budget for 2010 is signed, there will not be a government shutdown, but the fight is not over,” Governor Granholm said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press. “If there was something in the budget that we didn’t have enough money to fund completely, I vetoed it. If there were special earmarks, mistakes or bad policy, I vetoed them.”

The $44.5 billion budget for 2009-2010 was a result of months of political battles in both the Michigan House and Senate, and ended Friday when Granholm signed the remaining 6 bills, but not after line-item vetoing over 70 items.

The governor also threatened to veto items she felt were underfunded, hoping it would lead to a re-examination by Senate Republicans, but after Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop reported that the veto itemed would not be replaced, she quickly abandoned that approach.

Though the budget has been passed on and signed, Speaker of the House Andy Dillon says, “We’re only in the sixth inning.”

He believes the fight for funding is not over, and will be a main topic of the coming months.

In response to Dillon’s statement, Aquinas College Senior Rob Clark said, “In the economy we have in Michigan right now, I just don’t see how we can increase taxes any more on people that are struggling as it is. This holds true for businesses as well.”

The overall state spending plan includes about $12.8 billion in federal funding, including $1.4 billion from the federal stimulus package, and a possible influx of cash for Standish prison, a 600-bed maximum-security prison, that currently being considered as a potential location for holding terror detainees from Guantanamo Bay. The prison officially closed at the end of October, but is ready to reopen if President Obama decides on it.

Included in the cuts and vetoes are the 7 million from the Michigan State Fair, revenue sharing, and near and dear to most students, the Michigan Promise Scholarship. The scholar ships costs the state 120 million dollars, but will cost students and families over 3,000 dollars.

Besides the Michigan Promise, there will be a 61% reduction in competitive scholarships, grants for nursing students and the work-study program. Many state departments are dealing with on average, a 10 per-cent cut in their funding. Clark believes that despite the hardship brought on by the broken Promise, “cutting the money here is better than cutting primary and secondary education funding anymore.”

Although the final budget has been called a “slash and sign job,” Granholm did keep the agricultural extension and experiment station programs at Michigan State, in a hope to promote Michigan as a state ready to lead the way in the Green Economy.

The State will also be facing an expensive class action lawsuit that seeks to bring Michigan’s Medicaid scheme for adult dental benefits under compliance with federal law.