LANSING – Senate Republicans began moving the 2020 budget Tuesday, with no part of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed 45-cent gas tax increase included.

It’s a not unexpected setback for Whitmer’s plan to “fix the damn roads” — one that could also impact her plans to significantly boost spending on education and environmental improvements.

The governor's office said Tuesday that Whitmer is prepared to work with lawmakers, but she will veto the bill if it reaches her desk in its current form.

It "won't do anything to actually fix the roads, and could actually make things worse," said Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown.

In a party line, 5-2 vote, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation reported out the roads budget after axing Whitmer's "Fixing Michigan Roads Program," which is proposed to eventually raise another $1.9 billion a year to fix the roads, of which a little more than $900 million would be available in 2020.

Republicans on the committee said they're doing the responsible thing by proposing a balanced budget based on revenues the state now has. Any possible future revenue should be part of a discussion later this year, said the chairman, Sen. Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City.

"That's the future," Schmidt said of any possible tax increase for roads. "We know what we have today."

A Democrat on the committee, Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-Beverly Hills, accused Republicans of cowardice.

"They're being chicken," Bayer said after the meeting. "They're taking the cowardly way out."

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Schmidt said he wants to continue to work with a $1.2-billion road funding package that was signed into law in 2015, and he's not clear on how much additional road funding money Michigan needs. He said the bill reported out by the committee actually accelerates the 2015 road funding package by one year, by allocating a full $600 million of general fund money to roads in 2020 — up from $450 million in the original plan.

Jeff Cranson, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation, said he's encouraged by lawmakers' commitments to further discussions.

"We still like the governor's plan," Cranson said. "We think it does the best job of getting the most pavement to the best condition in the shortest amount of time."

Whitmer and department director Paul Ajegba will continue to hold town hall meetings and "keep taking the case to the people," he said.

The road funding piece of the budget has ramifications for school spending and the environment, because by raising more fuel tax money to spend on roads, Whitmer wants to stop spending general fund money on roads, instead targeting that money items such as education and improving drinking water quality.

The bill, Senate Bill 149, now goes to the full Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration. Budget considerations in the state House are not advanced as far as they are in the Senate.

Michigan's gas tax is currently 26.3 cents per gallon for both regular and diesel fuel. Whitmer's proposed three-step increase over a one-year period would give Michigan the highest fuel taxes in the country.

Ohio recently voted to increase fuel taxes by 10.5 cents per gallon for regular fuel and by 19 cents per gallon for diesel fuel, effective July 1.

Though the Michigan plan would raise $2.5 billion a year in new funding, the net increase for roads would be $1.9 billion, after backing out the general fund money now devoted to roads.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.