Michigan Gov. Grethen Whitmer began her State-of-the-State Address last night by stating Michigan has rolled back the retirement tax on seniors, saving a senior household an average of $1,000 a year.
This was just one of many efforts to help residents with the biggest expenses. She followed up by saying the state “quintupled the Working Families Tax Credit so people working nine to five or second or third shift get hundreds more dollars back in their pockets.”
She also said the legislature also “delivered $1 billion in tax relief.” This was done at a time when the state was able to pay down $18 billion in debt, while bringing the “rainy day” fund to “an all-time high of nearly $2 billion. We even created a new rainy fund for our schools and put nearly $500 million in it.”
Whitmer also stated all 1.4 million public school students get two meals a day, so they “can focus on learning and parent save $850 a year on groceries, per child.”
The legislature also put “cost-saving pieces of the Affordable Care Act into state law.” This allows young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they are 26. And people can’t be charged more for having a preexisting condition. “No one should be running up that bill to get better when they are sick.”
Whitmer talked about what she called an “historic clean energy package” aimed at reaching 100 percent clean energy by 2040. It is also expected to lower the cost of household utilities by an average of $145 a year and create “thousands of good-paying jobs, backed by the strongest labor standards in the country.”
Whitmer said these actions should help residents facing problems with inflation by making “life affordable by lowering costs on the biggest items” in residents’ monthly budgets.
She noted things “are headed in the right direction. Inflation is slowing down, unemployment remains low, and take home pay is up.” And she and the legislature will continue to work to lower costs “on the biggest items” in peoples’ budgets.
This will be done via things like the Michigan vehicle rebate plan to “lower the cost of buying a new car with a $1,000 rebate off any car and $2,000 for electric vehicles. If it was assembled by a union, you get an extra $500 bucks – that’s up to $2,500 off.” The rebate should be offered at the point of sale, saving residents money when they walk out of a dealership.
Whitmer said that Michigan’s housing is old, with many residents spending more than half their income on rent or mortgage payments. She noted that young people cite housing affordability as as one of their top concerns.
To address this problem, of what she calls the state’s first commissioned statewide housing plan. The goal is to build or refurbish 75,000 new units in the next five years.
“We are headed in the right direction,” says Whitmer. “In the five years since I took office, we’ve invested double what we did in the previous eight years to build or rehabilitate 34,000 housing units, supporting 20,000 good-paying construction jobs.”
She stated that from November 2022 to November 2023, the four largest counties — Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Kent — permitted more than 8,000 units.
In 2024, “we will make the largest investment to build housing in Michigan history. We will invest almost $1.4 billion to build or rehabilitate nearly 10,000 homes. That’s 10 times what we put into housing just 10 years ago. Getting this done will support thousands of good-paying, middle-class jobs in the skilled trades — from pipefitters and carpenters to bricklayers and roofers.”
Whitmer says she is planning to propose the Michigan Family Tax Credit, which is intended to save families up to $5,000 a year on their taxes.
The state hasn’t neglected education. Whitmer says, “since I took office, Republicans and Democrats, came together to raise per pupil funding by 22 percent in five years.”
Whitmer also spoke about what she calls “a manufacturing renaissance” in which the Big Three automakers have invested in Detroit, Lansing, and Flint. But investment isn’t just being made by the Big Three.
Calumet Electronics has invested in Keweenaw Peninsula, Nel Hydrogen is building a gigafactory in Plymouth Charter Township, Scout Motors is building a research and development hub in Novi, Fortescue is building a new batter plant in Detroit, Hydro is building an aluminum recycling facility in Cassopolis, and SK Siltron is investing in its semiconductor wafer plant in Bay City.
To keep this going, Whitmer says Michigan, which is one of the states without a research and development tax credit, needs to adopt one. And the state needs to develop policies that will remove limits to the state’s ability attract small and second state businesses.
The state had a similar successful bipartisan program years ago and the state should bring it back.
Whitmer also says she wants to establish an innovation fund to invest in high growth starts “that will create the future right here in Michigan.” And the state needs to keep its infrastructure in good condition. She noted that the Michigan Together Council stated infrastructure is one of the keys to growing the state’s population. This makes fixing “roads, bridges, pipes, and everything in between.”
Aric Nesbitt, leader of state senate, in his response to the speech says, “Whitmer painted a picture of the state of our state at odds with the reality most Michiganders are facing. She took a victory lap and patted herself on the back while many of our family members, friends, and neighbors continue to struggle.”
Nesbitt also stated the speech was made by someone who “has spent too much time in the Lansing bubble — someone who doesn’t worry about the price of groceries, or heating her home in the winter, or whether her kids can catch up in school.”
Republicans believe taxpayers “know who to spend” their money better than the government and the party will fight any efforts to raise taxes on Michigan businesses and families.
Republicans also want to lower energy costs, but the party wants to avoid a “California-style Green New Deal” that will make energy more expensive and less reliable.
Nesbitt also criticized Democrats’ education efforts, saying eliminating reading standards is not the way to go. But rather students, parents, and teachers should be given “the support they need to get our schools in the top 10” of educational outcomes.
Jim Holcomb, president and CEO of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce also issued a response, stating that the organization was glad to hear Whitmer “acknowledge the state’s troubling trends” but the group was also “wary of the mixed messages, lack of details, and many ‘sounds great on paper’ ideas that raise serious questions about our state’s and taxpayers’ ability to afford them.”
The response stated Michigan’s future “for all rely on bipartisanship and putting meaningful policy over politics, along with ensuring fiscal responsibility and sustainable budgeting. Employers are ready to be part of the solution with a state ready and open for business” with a competitive, stable landscape that can attract good jobs.
