GOP State Sen. Peter Lucido Talks Road Negotiations, Budget, Possible Run For Congress

State lawmakers head back to Lansing on Tuesday after their summer break. They have some hefty tasks to tackle between now and the fall, including coming to terms on a plan to fix the darn roads and finalizing a state budget.

There’s a lot of pressure on state leaders, especially Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, to come to an agreement on fixing Michigan’s crumbling infrastructure. That was the cornerstone of her campaign last year. So far, the Republican-led state Legislature has been uninterested in her proposal to boost the gas tax by 45 cents per gallon.

The budget is another sticky issue so far this year. For the last eight years under total Republican control of the state, the budget has been finalized before lawmakers went home for the summer. Now, with divided government, there’s no end in sight for budget negotiations. Whitmer has already brought up the idea of passing a continuing budget to extend the process past the October 1 deadline.

“We’re playing chicken with each other” on the budget, state Sen. Peter Lucido (R-Shelby Twp.) tells Stephen Henderson on Detroit Today.

Lucido says he doesn’t like the idea of passing a continuing budget to extend the deadline.

With U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell’s (R-MI) announcement that he won’t seek another term in Congress, Lucido’s name has been thrown around as a possible candidate for the seat.

On whether he’ll run for Congress, Lucido says “the jury’s still out, but they’re going to come to a verdict soon.”

“If the people of the state of Michigan think I can do something, I want to know what they think I can do,” he says. “And if I can’t, I don’t want to waste my time.”

“If it means to go serve as a representative in the capacity of the federal level, bring it back to the communities I serve, I’ll do it,” says Lucido.

Click on the player above to hear state Sen. Peter Lucido talk roads, the budget, and his possible run for Congress.