Tonight Governor Whitmer will make her first State of the State (SOTS) address at 7 PM.  What will our new Governor have to say about our Great State of Michigan, well according to the Detroit Free Press she believes our state is not that great.

Governor Whitmer will devote much of her speech to make a “sober assessment” of how bad we have it here in the state of Michigan.

Most SOTS addresses as well as State of the Union addresses are not very important.  They are rah rah speeches to the party of the person in office base.  That being said the first SOTS addresses are important because it will give us an idea where the newly elected Governor would like to take our state and what they think about our state.

If Governor Whitmer decides to go down the path that she laid out to the Detroit Free Press I believe that is a mistake.  I would bet most people in the state do not believe our state is that bad to live in.  I also believe that most people in the state either believe the state is in a better position than what was left to Governor Snyder by Governor Granholm.  So by deciding to knock the state she probably will turn off many people who believe we are not in that bad of a position as a state.  That of course depends on how many people actually watch the speech and how it is reported on.

Governor Whitmer told the Detroit Free Press that the following departments are not doing so well:

The Department of Environmental Quality:

"post-Flint stress has spread throughout the department…under-staffing is already adding extra anxiety…repeated legislative attacks on core programs and purposes and a lack of funding to meet the public's expectations on protection from environmental harms adds a serious level of stress”

The Department of Education:

“morale problems are linked to leadership changes and "confusion caused by constant legislative changes which can create moving targets" for staff”

The Michigan State Police:

"must work together as a unit to keep Michiganders safe," but “recent controversy surrounding the social media post of a former leader has created division among the force”

The Department of Talent and Economic Development:

"staff expressed confusion over the leadership structure due to an unclear organizational chart:

Then Governor Whitmer said the following about state employees:

"I think our state workforce has been under-appreciated…That’s something that you can’t put a price on, but we know there’s a big cost, and so just by showing up, you know, I’ve been into every department since I took office and in just about every single one I met a state employee with 30 to 40 years of experience who had never met a governor before."

It appears that the theme of Governor Whitmer's State of the State address will be to point out all the things that are wrong with Michigan and she will need more money to make Michigan Great Again.

We will see what path she decides to take.

Wednesday morning at 9 AM I will have on my show as a guest Michael D. LaFaive, Senior Director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative to hear his commentary on Governor Whitner’s first State of the State Address.

You can hear the Governor’s State of the State Address on WBCK at the conclusion of the Michigan State University basketball game.

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