Governor Gretchen Whitmer continued to highlight road funding, housing, and innovation as three main priorities during a speech at the Grand Rapids Chamber Monday.
Whitmer has proposed a roads plan that involves putting all taxes on gas sales toward roads, and raising some new revenue from larger companies and the marijuana industry.
Meanwhile, a competing House Republican-led plan agrees on the gas tax front, though it would find additional money for roads by scaling back proposed using savings from scaling back business incentive programs, like one known as the SOAR Fund.
Whitmer said she’s open to ideas, but the state can’t afford to entirely cut programs meant to bring in business.
“Maybe it doesn't look exactly like the SOAR going forward. Maybe they've got additional thoughts about ways that we could sharpen our toolkit. But what we can't do is unilaterally drop all the tools and think that we're going to be able to go toe to toe with states that are trying to steal companies that are already here,” Whitmer told reporters her speech.
Whitmer said talks are ongoing over whether Democrats should introduce bills for their competing vision, or if lawmakers need to get to a point where they have their own policy goals and negotiate from there using the House bills as a jumping-off point.
Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said it’s time for all sides to come together to hammer out details.
“We are eager to start serious negotiations about the budget and about the road funding concepts that are out there. The plans are great, but if they're not bicameral. Not just bipartisan, but bicameral and bipartisan, it won't succeed,” Brinks said.
Brinks said negotiations over roads need to happen side by side with budget discussions. She acknowledged the next state budget will likely be smaller than in recent years, while Whitmer also called for some belt-tightening during her speech. Much of that is due to fewer federal COVID-19 pandemic aid dollars being left.
As far as housing goes, Whitmer’s plan involves using a state agency to ensure more affordable housing units get built. She also wants lawmakers to fund a program that re-purposes former industrial sites for residential or commercial uses.
“I have told all the legislative leadership where we spend money, whether it's in the budget or it's elsewhere, it's got to be negotiated with the budget. And so, it is my hope that we are able to secure additional longevity in the brownfield redevelopment funds,” she told reporters.
Whitmer said she’s not ready to say how much money she expects lawmakers to put into the Transformational Brownfield Plans program.
Monday's speech was the fourth in a series of speeches her team is broadly referring to as the Road Ahead. Earlier talks include ones in Detroit given in January and earlier this month, and in Washington D.C.
