Michigan suffered a severe economic downturn and population losses during the 2000s, a period known as the “Lost Decade.” Although former governor Jennifer Granholm is not to blame for the Great Recession, Michigan fared far worse under her leadership than most other states. Michigan was the only state to lose population between 2000 and 2010, with essentially uninterrupted job losses until the last year of Granholm’s tenure.
Under current Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan is shrinking again. The state lost a congressional seat in the last reapportionment after a decade of slow growth, and the state lost population for two consecutive years following the 2020 Census. A recent poll suggests that over a quarter of Michiganders ages 18 to 29 said they expected to live elsewhere within ten years, and another 18 percent were “unsure.”
To address this issue, the governor recently announced the appointment of a chief growth officer for the state and the creation of the nominally bipartisan Growing Michigan Together Council. The council is tasked with setting a population goal for 2050 and designing policies to “build, attract, and retain a skilled workforce.” However, Republicans are skeptical that the effort will bear fruit, with state senate minority leader Aric Nesbitt describing the effort as an attempt to “circumvent the Legislature” and provide cover for tax hikes.
Whitmer has tasked the council with focusing on the economy, infrastructure, and education. However, her record on these issues is not encouraging. She has failed to learn from Granholm’s ineffective investments in green energy and is giving billions more to the industry. She has also doled out corporate welfare and signed the repeal of the state’s right-to-work law, which is another attack on the competitiveness of Michigan businesses.
One of Whitmer’s main proposals on infrastructure was to raise additional funding for repairs by hiking the gas tax 45 cents a gallon, which would have made Michigan’s gas tax the highest in the nation. Despite the state’s borrowing billions of dollars through a bond initiative to fund construction, a May 2022 poll found that 93 percent of likely voters rated Michigan roads negatively, suggesting the governor has so far failed to follow through on her signature promise to “fix the damn roads.”
Whitmer’s response to the coronavirus pandemic didn’t help either, as her shutdown orders sparked widespread layoffs. Similarly, most indicators of educational outcomes have fallen compared with what were already rather poor standards before the pandemic. Whitmer also disastrously required nursing homes to house coronavirus patients, shielding them from legal liability for mishandling Covid cases despite “167 complaints about nursing homes’ handling of COVID-19 or staffing” within a two-month period.
Whitmer’s efforts to expand abortion access also raise concerns, as she supported successful efforts to enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution and signed a repeal of the state’s pre-Roe abortion ban. It is a cruel irony that, having made abortion a cornerstone of her reelection campaign, she now concerns herself with Michigan’s declining population.
Despite the governor’s desire to retain Michigan’s youth, her council is required to have only one member below the age of 25. Michigan’s sons and daughters want to feel confident that the economic stagnation that our parents’ generation has dealt with for decades will abate. They want to know that their kids, when they have them, will attend high-quality schools. They would love to see Detroit reclaim its place as one of the great American cities, and they want someone to “fix the damn roads.”
Michigan natives love their home, but those leaving want to build their futures in a state that has one too. Lansing needs to make serious progress toward these goals if it intends to attract residents who didn’t grow up loving “bonfires by the lake,” as the governor recently put it. If Whitmer wants to avoid another lost decade, then this new council will need to prove more than a rubber-stamp of her failed platform.
