By Dan Luria
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave her fifth State of the State on Wednesday, and she showed once again that she richly deserved her overwhelming victory last November. Acknowledging that Michigan families are being forced by economic conditions to have “tough conversations,” she pledged to “work with anyone who wants to solve our real problems.” Indeed, she referenced “working across the aisle” four times.
Despite the extreme cynicism and partisanship that infect our politics today, the governor called herself an optimist, and stated that “The state of our State is strong.” (With an anticipated budget surplus approaching $9 billion, it’s hard to argue with that.) She asked legislators to ignore the “fatalism [that] is in vogue” today and 14 times exhorted them using the phrase “Let’s Get It Done!”
Creating a framework for her remarks, she asked the audience to think about three groups of Michiganders – working families, kids just graduating from high school, and “a child born today.” She then unveiled a program aimed at all three. Called “Lowering MI Costs,” it features:
- Repealing the retirement tax that was reinstated in 2011, noting that it would give half a million Michigan households an average tax break of $1,000.
- Expanding the Working Families Tax Credit, which was also “gutted” in 2011, which would reduce taxes for 700,000 households by an average of $3,000 a year. She noted that almost half of Michigan’s children are in families that would benefit from the expansion.
- Phasing in universal, free, public pre-K education by “the end of second term.” This would, the Governor said, ensure pre-K to each of Michigan’s 110,000 four-year-olds and save their families $10,000 a year.
Throughout her remarks, the Governor stressed that the State needs a path to success, and so do its people. Kids graduating from high school need a path they can follow without leaving the state to get good jobs. To help provide that path, she offered a two-prong strategy: increased economic opportunity through the “Make It in Michigan” initiative (focused on advanced manufacturing); and standing up for their freedom. Specifically:
- Michigan must aim, she said, to be the preeminent “advanced manufacturing destination,” with semiconductor chips and renewable energy supply chains localized here.
- Michigan must be clear that we stand for protecting personal freedom. She called for repealing Michigan’s 1931 abortion band and for expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act so that no Michigander “can be fired or evicted for who they are or whom they love.”
The governor was at pains to make clear that her views on these freedoms were not just a matter of political conviction, but critical to the state’s economic progress. She said that “Protecting people’s rights is good for business,” while “Bigotry is bad for business.” Joking, “I’m looking at you, Ohio and Indiana,” she invited young people who have left Michigan for jobs elsewhere — only to find themselves living in states that restrict their freedom — to come home.
For young people in Michigan, she called for expanding the “65 by ‘30” program, which seeks to have 65% of Michigan teenagers eligible for free college or community college tuition. She also called for even more apprenticeships to move Michigan young people into “good union jobs,” as 200,000 are doing today, according to the governor.
Turning to the path for “a kid born today,” she stressed two complementary priorities – generational investments in education and improved public safety. The Governor touted the success of student teacher stipends in enhancing the supply of teachers, and called for more robust funding for the “MI Kid Back on Track” initiative, with a focus on one-on-one tutoring to supplement schoolroom learning.
On public safety, the governor took on gun violence head-on. Saying in what was perhaps her most impassioned line of the night: “The time for only thoughts and prayers is over”; she called for universal background checks, safe storage laws, and extreme-risk protection orders. Noting that even Florida and Indiana have such orders, she called for action on all three of these initiatives.
The address concluded with the governor noting the essential challenges of continuing to repair and upgrade infrastructure and to address the threat of climate change. With regard to infrastructure — which includes not just roads and bridges, but high-speed internet and the replacement of lead service pipes — she noted the opportunity presented by billions in federal funds from the bipartisan federal infrastructure law passed early last year. She ended by pledging more support for the MI Healthy Climate initiative, arguing that sharply higher Michigan-made solar and wind power hardware can and should be an important source of good jobs in the state.
All in all, it was an effective star turn by a governor who has proven that she can get things done, even when her party didn’t have a majority in the Legislature. Now that it does, Gov. Whitmer has a chance to be a transformative figure in the state. With her, we say “Let’s get it done.”
Dan Luria of Hamburg Township is the vice chair of the Livingston County Democratic Party.
