Governor Gretchen Whitmer is scheduled to give her first State of the State address Tuesday. Whitmer will be the first Democrat to give the speech in 9 years. She succeeded term limited Republican Rick Snyder.
Charles Ballard is an economist at Michigan State University. He says Whitmer is giving a speech when the economy is doing better than a decade ago, but it’s a “mixed picture.”
“Her predecessor left her an okay economy but not a very good public sector. And many, many crucial needs, or needs that are important in my view, have been neglected and she faces a real challenge to try to address those things.”
Ballard says too many tax cuts over the years have resulted in crumbling infrastructure and other problems in the public sector.
“The economics of solving some of these problems is very easy. The politics is hard.”
The economy is better than it was a decade ago, says Ballard. But he adds that many of the jobs that have been added recently do not pay well.
Whitmer’s speech is scheduled to begin at 7:00pm in the state Capitol chamber of the House of Representatives.
