Ahead of Whitmer's State of the State, Michigan's GOP leaders tout priorities, air frustrations
Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) met with reporters after session on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025 to outline his hope for the 2025 State of the State Address. | Kyle Davidson
With Gov. Gretchen Whitmer preparing to give her seventh State of the State Address on Wednesday night, Republican leadership in Michigan's House and Senate met with reporters to share the policies they hoped to see the Democrat tackle in her speech.
Michigan Speaker of the House Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) said that since the Legislature struck a deal to preserve the state's tipped minimum wage rate and trimming back changes to the state's earned sick time requirements, road funding is the next major issue to tackle.
'We were able to come together in a bipartisan way and solve a very complex problem that was so important to our business community and to our workers,' Hall said Tuesday. 'I think we have some momentum, and my hope is that we can build on that momentum, and we can really solve this roads problem by focusing on local roads and showing how we can fix the roads without raising taxes.'
But Hall also said he hopes Whitmer takes note that his chamber has forged ahead on several transparency policies.
The Hall Ethics, Accountability and Transparency – or HEAT – plan includes new rules for legislative spending initiative requests and legislation barring state lawmakers and their staff from entering into nondisclosure agreements.
The plan also includes Hall's expansion of the House Oversight Committee, which now holds subpoena power.
The final piece of the plan, and the only effort that has yet to receive the House's approval, is a proposed constitutional amendment, which would require a two-thirds vote to pass legislation during the lame duck period which follows the November election in even numbered years. It's known as a lame duck period because a lawmaker has either won reelection, or an opponent or successor has been elected.
Alongside support for the HEAT plan, Hall said he would like to see additional details on the governor's road funding plan, unveiled on Feb. 10.
Road funding has been a top priority for the state's Republican leaders and the governor, although they've had political disagreements over how to get it done. Hall and his caucus refused to show up for work during lame duck in December unless Democrats took action on road funding, as well as efforts to curtail changes to the state's minimum wage laws that were set to take effect on Feb. 21.
Since she launched her 2018 campaign for governor, Whitmer has pledged to 'fix the damn roads' in the state. However, her 2019 plan to boost road funding by increasing the gas tax fell flat with the GOP-controlled Legislature and was never enacted.
Her proposal allocates $3 billion to road repairs by ensuring gas tax revenue goes toward fixing the roads, cutting costs within the state budget, closing a tax loophole for marijuana and asking big tech corporations to pay their share in taxes for doing business in the state.
House Republicans released their updated road funding plan on Jan. 16, providing $3.145 billion in funding 'without raising taxes.'
Of the more than $3.1 billion in Hall's proposal, $2.2 billion of that funding would stem from dedicated corporate income tax funding, freeing up funding from older tax breaks, preventing spending on legislative special projects and economic development funding, and reallocating money from expiring corporate placemaking and community development funds.
It also incorporates $600 million in ongoing general funds from higher than expected tax returns projected by the state's legislative fiscal agencies and the budget office.
Similar to Whitmer's proposal, Hall's plan would also allocate all taxes paid at the pump to road funding.
Nesbitt calls for special election and policies to support Michigan families
While Hall honed in on more specific proposals, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township) aired broader grievances with the governor's leadership.
'What I'm hoping for is a real agenda on lowering the cost of living, fixing our roads, improving education – something that actually is a pragmatic way of solving the most pressing problems in the state,' Nesbitt said.
'Unfortunately, from the social media governor we'll probably be seeing a bit more fluff and public relations and poll-tested messaging than solving some of those issues,' Nesbitt said.
Nesbitt called attention to the open seat in Michigan's 35th Senate district, left vacant when U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) resigned in December to serve in Congress, demanding Whitmer call a special election to fill the vacant Senate seat.
'There's 270,000 constituents in mid-Michigan that are not represented right now in the State Senate,' Nesbitt said.
McDonald Rivet was elected to the State Senate in 2022, receiving 53.38% of the vote against former State Rep. Annette Glen (R-Midland), who received 46.62% of the vote.
Given that Whitmer called for a special election two weeks in safe blue districts after two-members of the formerly Democratic-led House won elections to serve as mayor in their hometown, Nesbitt accused her of holding off on calling a special election for political reasons. Democrats currently hold a slim 19-18 majority in the Senate, with a special election opening the chamber up to a 19-19 split, leaving Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist as the tie breaking vote within the chamber.
'We got elected to solve problems, to solve issues going into this new term, and I think the voters in November spoke pretty loudly that they wanted to see a rebalancing of power instead of this far-left socialist agenda that the Democrats had been ramming through over the last two years,' Nesbitt said.
While Nesbitt criticized the Whitmer administration's approach to economic development, he praised House Republicans' road-funding plan.
'It's a serious plan, one that actually shows that we can get there if we don't fund corporate welfare,' Nesbitt said in reference to the proposal's plan to divert and prevent economic development spending to pay for road repairs.
He also raised concerns about education, noting that only three-fourths of fourth graders and eighth graders in Michigan could read at grade level. He blamed the state's COVID-19 lockdowns and Democratic policies including repealing the state's third grade reading law.
Nesbitt boiled down all the issues to dueling questions.
'Do we continue to keep the status quo that we've seen under Gov. Whitmer? Or do we shake things up here in Lansing? And we work to grow the number of jobs, the prosperity, grow the number of people here in the state and actually get serious with education.'
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