It may be her second term, but Monday marks the 100th day of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s term. This is significant because it’s her first 100 days working with a democratic majority.
It has not been a slow 100 days either, as Whitmer and Democrats hit all their major goals in that time.
Which now has people looking ahead and wondering what is next?
Governor Whitmer hit the ground running with her legislative leaders. In January, they laid out six goals for the session:
- Repeal the retirement tax on senior pensions
- Boost the Earned Income Tax credit
- Expand the state’s civil rights acts to include gender and sexual identity
- Restore the Prevailing Wage law
- Repeal Right to Work
- Remove the 1931 anti-abortion bill
One hundred days in and she’s been able to accomplish those six things and even more.
“I was a little surprised how effectively they were able to check some items off their wish list,” said Adrian Hemond, founder of Grassroots Midwest.
The majority for Dems is very slim so to achieve these goals, they either needed every Dem on board or bipartisan support. The Dems held together for these major goals but now it may be expected that different parts of the party speak up.
“I think the pressure coming from the legislature on a lot of policies will move even further Left than what they passed,” said John Sellek, founder of Harbor Strategic. “That’s coming for sure. I think that’s why the governor wants to get this budget done now, as soon as she can.”
That’s the next major goal, passing her $80 billion proposed budget, as the state is sitting on billions in surplus cash.
“The state has a lot of it right now so that is going to help provide a little bit more of a glide path that you wouldn’t normally expect with the budget,” said Hemond. “But you still have to figure out how to put those puzzle pieces together.
Hemond and Sellek are strategists in Lansing. Each from a different side of the aisle, they form the aptly named ‘Baldly Bipartisan’ group, just for these kinds of conversations.
“There are so many things in there for so many different districts, that it doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or a Democrat, there’s something in there for you,” said Sellek. “The governor’s team will be very good at negotiating those things and we’re likely to see more bipartisanship in this. There’s more in it driving directly to legislators who have to go home and run for reelection next year.”
The budget is where we will see more policy plans that were laid out in campaign season.
“The one thing that’s out there that’s big, that’s undelivered on so far is for daycare,” said Sellek. “I think we’re going to see some spending done on that.”
The legislature returns this week from a long spring break and break for the summer in early July. The window is tight but the budget will be the focus.
“Right now there are no budgets on the floor of either chamber,” said Hemond. “So there’s a lot of work yet to be done on that for Democrats to be able to pivot back to some of their other policy preferences.”
