By Dan Luria, vice chair of the Livingston County Democrats
In a 40-minute address to a joint convention of the state Legislature, Gov. Whitmer laid out the many accomplishments of her administration, made possible by Michigan’s first Democratic majority in 40 years and by the Biden Administration’s post-pandemic programs to invest in infrastructure and bring manufacturing supply chains back to the US.
Using the metaphor of classic 1980s rock albums, she described the “deep cuts” and “innovative tracks” that have characterized Michigan policy since she took office in 2019. Her “set list” featured:
• The rollback in the senior tax, which saved half a million Michigan seniors $1,000 each in 2023
• The quintupling of the Working People Tax Credit, which along with the senior tax rollback cut Michigan citizens’ tax bill by $1 billion
• The repeal of 1931 laws banning abortion
• Enacting new protections for LBTQ+ Michiganders
• Supporting our teachers’ right to do their jobs without being dragged into national culture wars and book banning
• Providing free breakfast and lunch to every one of the state’s 1.4 million public school children
• Passing an historic clean energy package aimed at making Michigan electricity generation carbon-neutral by 2040
• Making good on her 2018 campaign promise to “fix the damn roads.” By the end of 2023, the state had repaired or replaced 20,000 lane-miles of road and 1,400 bridges, creating 45,000 jobs. (Whitmer called the orange barrels marking these projects “Michigan’s state flower.”)
While several items on this “set list” reflect Democratic priorities – many of them supported (based on polling) by most Michiganders but blocked during decades of Republican legislative majorities — at many points in her address Gov. Whitmer touted and called for tax cuts and more generous tax credits, while stressing fiscal responsibility, noting that in her time as governor the state has paid down $18 billion in debt and added $2.5 million to the State’s two major “rainy day” funds. These approaches exemplify her respect for market incentives as a way to stimulate needed private sector activity.
Saying that “the state of the state is ‘ready to rock’,” Whitmer asked the Legislature to make further progress in 2024 on lowering the cost of living for Michigan families:
• By building more, and more affordable, housing (in the Governor’s words, “Build, baby, build!”)
• By enacting the MI Vehicle new car and truck rebate to give buyers $1,000-2,500 right at the point of vehicle purchase
• By making two years of community college and post-high school skilled trades education free, by doing so fulfilling the so-called Michigan Guarantee
• By enacting a refundable credit that would give those caring for seniors and others with special needs up to a $5,000 boost in their after-tax incomes
• By enacting an R&D tax credit to reduce costs for businesses whose growth depends on developing and commercializing new technology
• By creating a Hire Michigan fund to reward companies that add more jobs here
• By expanding and simplifying the Renaissance Zones program to bring more private investment into the state’s slowest-growing communities
• By creating an Innovation Fund to invest in startup businesses
The governor argued that these 2024 priorities were partly to continue reducing Michigan families’ living costs and partly to incentivize the investments required to provide more opportunities for our children by increasing opportunity in the state. The goal, Whitmer said, is to allow more and more Michiganders to “write their own classic Michigan stories.”
The governor called the state “the home of the best football in the nation,” and said that the Detroit Lions’ remarkable turnaround was an example of what can happen when “humble people” display the grit needed to “write new stories.”
The Livingston County Democrats are grateful that our state has a governor and a Legislature that are finally working together to make Michigan a more successful, welcoming, and decent place for us all. There is, and will always be, room for reasonable people to disagree about the specifics of policy. But the progress made in 2023 makes us optimistic that those differences need not impede progress on common-sense initiatives that will make life easier and more rewarding for our citizens.
