After eight months of sweeping policy changes and record spending, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver a “What’s Next” address Wednesday, calling for paid family leave, a transition to 100% clean energy and additional election legislation.
Traditionally Michigan’s governors have used the annual State of the State address as the singular venue to lay out their agenda for the legislative branch. This will be the first time Whitmer has scheduled a second public speech in the same year to lay out additional goals.
In each of the areas, Whitmer has stakeholders lined up with no shortage of ideas and support.
After signing bills earlier this year to implement Proposal 2, the voting rights ballot measure supported by voters in 2022, Whitmer is planning to call on the legislature to “shore up” the electoral process against attempts to subvert the popular vote, according to documents reviewed by MLive.
Michigan’s Senate Elections Committee Chair Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, said he wants to pass legislation requiring the Board of State Canvassers, which certifies statewide elections, to certify the victory of the top vote-getter.
“We need to make sure that any sort of attempt to subvert the will of Michigan voters is just not an option at any part of the process,” Moss told MLive.
Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou, D-East Lansing, Moss’ counterpart in the House, said she wants to ensure penalties for harassment of election workers are increased, as introduced in a bill earlier this year.
Sharon Dolente, of advocacy organization Promote The Vote Michigan, has a long list of policy objectives too, but in particular she hopes to tighten procedures around election audits.
“The voters of the state of Michigan should never fear that their votes, their ballots, the materials, the applications to vote, all the materials that go into voting would be in the unsecure hands of some third-party organization that has partisan or political or personal motivations,” she said.
Whitmer also intends to cast a proposed requirement for employers to offer paid family and medical leave as a means of attracting workers to the state to grow its population.
Democrats in the legislature have already introduced legislation that would establish at least some of these policies, and it isn’t clear whether Whitmer will endorse the details of those bills or push for changes.
One bill package in the Michigan Senate would require employers with more than 50 employees to offer workers up to 15 weeks of paid leave per year for medical or family issues.
Similarly, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist recently expressed his support for legislation that would mandate Michigan utilities to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity sources by the year 2035. Whitmer is expected to call for a “100% clean energy standard,” but it isn’t clear what deadline she has in mind. She had previously told MLive she didn’t anticipate that legislation would reach her desk unaltered.
Whitmer will also call for improving energy efficiency programs, reducing permitting times for clean energy projects, and giving energy regulators more authority.
Whitmer press secretary Stacey LaRouche characterized the speech as a need for the governor to queue up more goals, saying “this legislative term has been one of the most productive in state history.”
LaRouche said the address will “outline policy priorities for this fall’s legislative agenda and build on work to lower costs, make Michigan more competitive, improve energy efficiency, expand opportunity, and protect people’s fundamental rights.”
Whitmer’s speech will be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube, LaRouche said.
Read more on MLive:
Challenges remain for women, Black innovators in EV industry led by white men
Michigan farms demolished by tornado: ‘There wasn’t enough time to get to the basement’
Republicans sue to make temporary Michigan tax cut permanent