Republican lawmakers from Southwest Michigan aren’t impressed with Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s State of the State address this week.
Speaking Wednesday, the governor called for a new road improvement plan, energy assistance for those with low incomes, programs to reduce housing costs, construction permitting reforms, and even a cell phone ban in schools. State Representative Brad Paquette, a former teacher, tells us he’s learned that doesn’t work. He thinks Whitmer’s speech was uninspired and reflected the fact her term is dwindling.
“You have a governor that, when I was chairing the education budget, she talked about transformational change, and there’s some energy to that,” Paquette said. “Now her goal in education is just to ban cell phones in the classroom. OK, that’s something that can be deliberated on, but that’s not the transformational change that she used to talk about. And then for everything else, it was all just subsidizing and raising taxes to fix everything else.”
Paquette said it’s “a kick to the teeth” Whitmer has not offered a serious plan for fixing the roads when that’s what she campaigned on. He’s also disappointed Whitmer didn’t talk about removing dark money from politics, something he says is at the root of all Lansing’s problems.
Meanwhile, state Representative Pauline Wendzel is also disappointed Whitmer didn’t have more to offer on roads. However, she tells us Republicans have their own road plan.
“We’re trying to work with the governor,” Wendzel said. “We don’t particularly like her [road plan], but I’m excited to hear, I think some progress will be made here in the next few months on a road funding program that will work for Michiganders without raising their taxes.”
Wendzel says Whitmer’s speech was short on substance.
On the other side of the aisle, Democratic state Representative Joey Andrews tells us he thought Whitmer’s speech hit the right tone by addressing housing.
“Our district’s got seven of the most expensive housing markets in the state in it right now, as far as rising costs go,” Andrews said. “So, becoming an increasingly critical issue locally for us. And then we’re talking about permitting reform. I kind of consider those two sides of the same coin. Hard to build if you can’t get approved, you know?”
In her speech, Whitmer also warned about the threat to Michigan being posed by tariffs from the Trump administration, saying they’ll harm the auto industry. That bit has been applauded by the Detroit Chamber of Commerce.
