Politics

ProPublica: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Chance for Wide-Ranging Legacy Derailed by Botched Legislative Session

January 11, 2025, 11:52 PM

This story was originally published by ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism.

By Anna Clark

Featured_screenshot_2024-07-15_at_12.28.56_am_56699
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (Official photo)

The door is closing on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s chance to fulfill many of her campaign promises after Democrats couldn’t coalesce around a legislative agenda in the final days of 2024.

Michigan Democrats led all branches of government for the past two years, for the first time in about four decades, and they started with a multibillion-dollar budget surplus to boot. But the trifecta was lost after Republicans won back the state House in the fall. And, during the chaotic final session of the year, Democrats accomplished little on what Whitmer once presented as the most significant issues facing the state.

Among the bills not acted upon: ones to bring more transparency to the governor’s office and Legislature, which are now exempt from public record requests. Also dead were efforts to repeal Michigan’s controversial emergency manager law and to charge royalties to bottled water companies for extracting groundwater and invest it in infrastructure and other programs, an idea similar to what Whitmer herself once suggested. The Legislature also took no substantive action to “fix the damn roads,” as Whitmer’s famous 2018 campaign slogan put it.

“Governor Whitmer thanks our colleagues in the legislature for their efforts on behalf of their fellow Michiganders and looks forward to working alongside the incoming House,” Stacey LaRouche, Whitmer’s press secretary, said in a statement. “She will continue to work with anyone who is serious about getting things done.”

Overall, Michigan Democrats followed an active first year in leadership with a markedly more stunted one, tempered by internal conflicts and moderate policies that seemed tailored to shoring up electoral prospects. (The governor has consistently demurred when asked about her interest in running for president.)

“I’m across-the-board mad,” said Lisa McGraw, public affairs manager of the Michigan Press Association, which has lobbied for years to expand the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

There is a continuing cost to secrecy in state government, McGraw said, pointing to how a lack of transparency contributes to corruption and the potential misuse of power. To those who oppose opening up the governor’s office and Legislature to FOIA, she asks, “What do they have to hide?”

Bills that would have made long-unaddressed fixes to Michigan’s Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act also never made it to the governor’s desk. A ProPublica investigation last year showed how WICA provides support for wrongfully convicted people as they rebuild their lives, but many of their compensation claims are challenged by the state. Some get nothing at all. Two Supreme Court justices, a state commission, the attorney general’s office and advocates have implored legislators to address gaps in the law.

But bills that aimed to do so expired at the end of the year.

“More people will be harmed in the near future because of the failure of our Legislature,” said Kenneth Nixon, president and co-founder of the Organization of Exonerees.

Now, he said, “everything starts over” with the WICA reform effort. The split government makes it unlikely that a new bill will advance over the next two years, he said, but it’s important to educate legislators on why the changes are needed.

“People have had their lives destroyed through no fault of their own, and they should be made whole,” Nixon said.


Read more:  ProPublica


Leave a Comment:

Photo Of The Day