Everybody has had their fun.

Now it is down to brass tax on writing a bipartisan budget, including some tax relief for you.

You were warned not to spend the income tax cut and the gas tax pause authored by the legislative Republicans because the governor hinted she would veto them — and she did.

And they did as expected. From every corner of the state GOP, everyone fired off round after round of criticism aimed at reelection candidate Whitmer for failing to deliver tax relief to beleaguered state taxpayers — in an election year, no less.

She did not engage in the political rhetoric coming from the other side, but laid out her reasoning for using the veto pen. In a nutshell, she explains that the income tax cut would have drained the state checkbook to the tune of $2.5 billion every year and, eventually, she also explains, that would produce budget cuts in education, public safety, and all the other programs citizens want.

She also regurgitates the tax relief she does favor, which the Republicans aren’t buying, yet.

The fact that the governor had to convince voters she was being responsible with their money and the others guys weren’t means citizens have to listen to understand.

Lots of luck with that, these days.

The good news for the governor is that she dodged the gas tax cut bullet nicely and in the middle of the NCAA basketball tourney, the arrival of the BA.2 COVID-19 sub-variant, a war overseas, and the arrival of the first robins of spring, so most folks who don’t draw a paycheck in Lansing are not engaged. For them, the governor’s race is eons away, and so the GOP whack job on her vetoes may be just glancing shots for the moment.

Up until the governor nixed all that stuff, the legislative Republicans had the governor right where they wanted her — i.e., in opposition to their tax cuts. She was being forced to reject tax cuts as she was running again.

But, after the state House passed the 27-cents-a-gallon gas tax freeze, the governor’s minions in the state Senate rescued her by refusing to let the GOP plan hit the pump right now. And, with that, the pump relief will never take effect, so the governor vetoed something that was basically meaningless for motorists.

And she told them so.

So, as indicated in the first sentence, all the back-and-forth posturing is over and it’s time to get in the room and actually pass something she can sign. And, at this early juncture, it looks like some pump relief is in the works.

The Senate Democratic leader, who carries legislative H20 for the governor, wants to pause the 6% sales tax on gas and so does the Senate GOP leader. State Sen. Mike Shirkey, the Republican leader, wants to kill it altogether. State Sen. Jim Ananich, the Democratic leader, wants a temporary holiday from the levy.

They can iron that out.

Meanwhile, House Republicans are not there, since they are still hacked that the Senate did not get their gas tax thing accomplished. But, when the governor starts to make noises about accepting some of their other tax cut ideas, you watch, by late spring, this stuff will come together.

The Republicans have what they want right now, which is enough ammo to fire at the governor for her vetoes, but, at the end of the day, they want tax relief as much as the Democrats and the governor do in order to win votes in the fall.

So this will be done.

Not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow, but after everyone puts on their big girl and boy pants and gets around to doing the business of serving you and not their own personal political agendas.