GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Grand Rapids was the governor’s first stop after delivering her fifth State of the State address.
With the event back in person for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, Governor Gretchen Whitmer laid out her plans for a second and final term in office.
Hours after the address, she sat with a group of constituents at the United Methodist Community House on Division Avenue – most of them elderly – to discuss some of her future plans.
Chief among them was the repeal of the state’s retirement tax, a move Democrats lurched closer towards on Thursday, approving the repeal in the state Senate.
However, the proposed repeal of the 12-year-old tax on retirement income, so far, only includes pension plans. It does not include privately funded retirement savings like 401(k) plans, but the governor hinted that could be next.
“I think that’s definitely a conversation we’ll be having,” she said, speaking to FOX 17 in a sit down after Thursday’s event. “Twelve years ago, when retirement for pensioners was taxed for the first time to solve a budget problem, I thought it was cruel then and we have an opportunity to make it right, and that’s my first and foremost goal immediately.”
In her address, Whitmer also floated the possibility of enhanced gun control measures by the end of her second term. Universal background checks, safe storage, and red flag laws that seek to keep guns out of the hands of people who may use them to commit violence are all in her sights, and with a majority in the state House and Senate, they could get passed soon.
“I’d like it to happen quickly,” she said on Thursday. “We’re not talking about going after hunters or recreational gun owners. What we’re talking about is having some common sense reforms so that we keep these weapons out of the hand of people who are intent on hurting themselves or others.”
Safe storage laws became a flashpoint in the Michigan gun debate after it was discovered that the gunman in the Oxford High School shooting used a weapon he found in his parents' sock drawer, unlocked.
Perhaps the most significant new proposal during the governor’s address dealt with early childhood education. Through an expansion of the state’s existing Great Start Readiness Program, which covers early education costs for low-income families, all four-year-old students in the state would receive free access to pre-kindergarten educations. It would be rolled out over the entirety of the governor’s second four-year term and would save participating families an estimated $10,000 annually.
However, the governor hasn’t yet said how she plans to foot the bill for the program expansion.
“We have paid down $14 billion in state debt, we’ve amassed a record rainy day fund, we’ve left billions on the balance sheet. We’re in a stronger financial position than Michigan’s been in a long, long time,” she said, when asked Thursday. “The greatest investment you can make in a child’s success is in the early years. We’re not doing enough there and that’s why getting to universal pre-k by the end of this term.”
More should be known when the governor releases her next budget proposal in two weeks.
“I don’t think that there will be a lot of surprises,” she said. “I think we are really fortunate to be in a position where we can make some long overdue investments and we’ll continue doing that.”
