(The Center Square) – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer backed six new government programs in her State of the State address but no price tag or funding mechanisms.
Those programs include taxpayer-funded community college for all high school graduates as well as preschool and a $5,000 tax credits for caring for a sick family member.
“Every single Michigander can count on a free public education from pre-K through community college,” Whitmer said. “Let’s get it done.”
Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, posted on social media in favor of boosting education spending to include driver’s education – an option Michigan eliminated in 2004.
“Remember when driver’s ed courses in Michigan used to be free for kids? We can do that again to save families money!”
State Rep. Donni Steele, R-Orion Twp, said that tax hikes must fund the new programs.
“Nothing is free; the money has to come from somewhere,” Steele said in a statement. “Democrats want you to pay more on tickets to the zoo so rich people can pay less for electric vehicles. They want to turn $10 ballpark hotdogs into $15 ballpark hotdogs, so they can give even more handouts to foreign governments. The governor wants to make it so anyone who steps foot in an urban center will be taxed for every door entered, purchase made, and inch traveled.”
A Citizen’s Research Council of Michigan report estimates 270,000 more people might leave the state by 2050 and calls on the state to repair infrastructure to attract and retain residents.
Michigan’s 2024 budget was a record $82 billion, yet a think tank report says the Wolverine State is “one of the poorest states in the nation.”
In the last 20 years, Michigan has dropped from 16th to 39th in personal income per capita among the 50 states.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy said the taxpayer-funded community college proposal aims to reach Whitmer’s 30 by 30 goal, which it called “arbitrary.”
“Rather than hoping that the state meets an arbitrary goal of reaching a certain percentage of college graduates, policymakers should instead be questioning why that goal exists in the first place,” Mackinac Center policy analyst Jennifer Majorana said in a statement. “The state has not provided any evidence that having more community college graduates leads to a stronger economy and that taxpayers must therefore sponsor even more community college scholarships.”
