CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH SEN. ED MCBROOM
Upper Peinsula State Senator Ed McBroom was not thrilled with what he heard in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s State of the State address this week in Lansing.
The Dickinson County Republican took issue with two of Whitmer’s key themes: more state-subsidized housing, and two years of free community college for all Michigan high school graduates. Whitmer noted that housing starts are down in Michigan, and that her proposal would jump-start them. But McBroom says that the reason housing is sluggish in Michigan is because of burdensome regulations placed on new home construction by her administration, regulations that he says are not in place in neigboring states.
McBroom also tells RRN News that Whitmer’s community college plan falls flat because the Middle College program already provides that for students across the state, where they earn free college credits while still in high school. And McBroom says the state’s population loss, another item Whitmer mentioned in her speech, are mostly because of Whitmer’s policies that he says drive people out of the state.
The next step in the budget is the governor’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees next month. Whitmer praised the latest Revenue Estimating Conference report which showed the state government will be bringing in even more money in 2024. But McBroom says that’s no reason to spend it all, and he and other Republicans are warning of financial problems down the road once the extra money runs out.
Whitmer’s Democrats have a thin majority in the Michigan Senate, and the Michigan House is currently in a 54-54 deadlock until two special elections are held in the Detroit area in April, which should restore the Democratic majority in that chamber.
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