Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (right) greets members of the Dearborn Youth Theater’s cast of “Shrek the Musical” during a July 8 rehearsal at the Michael A. Guido Theater, 15801 Michigan Ave. Whitmer made the surprise visit following her speech at the American Arab Chamber of Commerce luncheon inside the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center that same afternoon. Dearborn Recreation & Parks Youth Theater Director Rashid Baydoun wrote on Facebook that Whitmer congratulated the actors on past performances leaving them thrilled to connect with a state official.
By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave a speech on her proposed state budget followed by a brief question-and-answer session during a luncheon July 8 at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.
The speech centered on plans to fix the roads, investment in education and closing the skilled labor jobs gap along with the proposed 2020 state budget.
Whitmer said she was in attendance to speak about not only the budget, but all of the different pieces of it that impact Michigan resident’s lives every single day.
“We have serious issues to confront as a state,” she said. “A budget is a lot more than just numbers on a balance sheet. It’s a statement of your values and a statement of where you as a state want to be headed and what you care about.”
Whitmer explained the state is still in the budget process and of the 188 days, up until July 8, legislature had been in session for only 42 of those days. According to her proposed budget, Dearborn Public Schools would receive a $7.7 million increase, while under the House budget plan DPS would receive $6 million less and $4.5 million less in the Senate’s budget.
The DPS Board of Education, like many other school districts across the state, had to pass its budget by July 1 even though the state budget wasn’t approved.
During her speech, Whitmer said that during March is Reading Month, she and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist traveled throughout state and primarily sat with second-graders who are focused on very serious issues including clean water, school supplies and fixing the roads.
Whitmer also explained that for the last 40 years the state stopped investing in the fundamentals and found it’s obviously not one party or one person who made these choices, but instead the 40 years of culture change that’s happened in Michigan.
“As a result when our road funding hasn’t been able to keep up with our roads, when you have a crisis of infrastructure you have to fix it even if it is a part-time, temporary fix like filling potholes instead of rebuilding roads,” she said. “So to triage a crumbing infrastructure that’s dangerous, they started taking money from the general fund to fill potholes. That general fund hadn’t grown in 20 years, so to shore that up they started taking out of the school aid fund.
“So there’s been a shell game that’s been played in Lansing with regard to the state budget, taking money from the general fund to fill potholes and balancing it on the backs of our kids’ education. As a result, we have outcomes that are abysmal and dangerous when you think about the future of our state and the lives that we are impacting of these kids.”
Another topic of the budget Whitmer emphasized was the skills gap with 45 percent of adults with a post secondary certificate or degree of some sort, a prerequisite to get into the middle class these days.
Her “aggressive” goal is to get the state to 60 percent by 2020 and fill the 545,000 skilled labor jobs that are anticipated needed to be filled by 2026.
Whitmer showed a still from a video she took of a road she was traveling on from Traverse City to Mackinaw City in May. She said that when it comes to the quality of the state’s roads, at any given point and time a state should have 90 percent of its roads in good or fair conditions.
That means, a state is working on about 10 percent of its overall infrastructure.
In her budget, Whitmer is proposing a 45-cent-per-gallon gas tax that would increase in 15-cent increments in October until reaching 45 cents. A 2015 gas tax didn’t fix the problem as expected, but instead slowed the decline, Whitmer said.
“Currently, 78 percent of our roads are in good or fair condition,” she said. “In just three years if we don’t do something bold now, we will drop to 60 percent. The $2.5 billion price tag for road funding today is expected to increase to $3.5 billon in three years. It will take 10 years to get back to 90 percent of our roads in good or fair condition.”
Whitmer mentioned the Miller Road bridge in Dearborn south of I-94 which she visited on May 16 with Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and Mayor John O’Reilly Jr. due to its serious condition.
The 88-year-old bridge has drawn attention due to its crumbling infrastructure which is currently has over 500 temporary supports holding up the bridge.
In 2018, Wayne County spent $4 million to add temporary steel supports on the bridge that has 4,500 vehicles traveling on it daily.
“We have 1,100 bridges in Michigan that need to be rebuilt,” Whitmer said, “Some are shut down because they can’t bare weight anymore.”
Whitmer closed her speech by naming three things her budget aims to do, which are: fixing the roads, closing the skills gap and prioritizing education.
“None of these is or should be a partisan issue,” she said. “These are the fundamentals that improve the lives for everyone in the state. From the west side of the state to southeast Michigan to the Upper Peninsula — for Republicans and Democrats. It’s really focused on making sure that in 10 years, the children of Michigan who are asking me to treat one another like a big family make Michigan their home for the long term.”
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected])