LANSING, Mich. — State Sen. John Damoose, R-Harbor Springs, issued the following statement after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer outlined her priorities for the coming year in her 2024 State of the State address Wednesday evening:
“After this evening’s speech, I am cautiously optimistic that perhaps the highly partisan agenda we saw last year will give way to a more collaborative, commonsense form of government in 2024.
“The governor certainly painted an optimistic picture of the state during her speech — however families across the state are living a very different reality. I hope we can put the last year behind us and focus on the ‘dinner table issues’ as she put it.
“Many of the themes of the speech are ideas I’ve been championing for years — things like tax cuts, tax credits, affordable housing, supporting and investing in education, and building a strong workforce.
“Supporting these things does not mean simply throwing more money at them, however. We need to be wary about things labeled as ‘free.’ Free means taxpayer-funded, so it is important that we also ensure we have strong oversight and accountability behind these initiatives. We’ve drastically increased education funding in recent years, but still rank in the bottom 10% of student performance. We can do better.
“The governor’s speech included a number of goals I can get behind, and I am hopeful we can work together to build a better, stronger, and more resilient Michigan.
“We are facing some serious challenges as a state and we don’t have any more time to waste playing politics. We will soon find out if these are sincere promises from the administration or just the same empty rhetoric that we saw in previous years.”
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