LANSING -- Governor Jennifer M. Granholm delivered her final State of the State Address Wednesday night from the Michigan House of Representatives, calling for cuts in the size of state government. She also pushed to restore funding to the Michigan Promise Scholarship, which 100,000 families of college students depend on in Michigan.
The 14 page speech acknowledged the dire straits of Michigan’s economy, staring down the barrel of a $1.7 billion deficit. The governor called for the early retirement of 46,000 state workers and public school workers. She said state government would only replace two of every three workers that retire. New workers would be brought in under a new health care plan that would cost the state 21 percent less. Those workers would pay for the difference themselves.
Locally, the governor praised alternative energy work in the Saginaw Valley. Granholm praised Dow Chemical Company’s PowerHouse Solar shingle, a device that produces electricity to power a home and can also sell power back to the electric company. Granholm said the deal could bring 6,500 jobs to the region once finalized. She highlighted other energy efforts in the region.
“Thanks to our bipartisan efforts, six major solar companies have announced investments totaling almost $2 billion in the region; investments expected to bring over 12,500 jobs to the area,” Granholm said in her speech.
Granholm recognized other innovations that have taken place across the state, including expansion of the homeland security and defense industry in Macomb County, and the expansion of research firm MPI in Kalamazoo which brought in 6,600 jobs to that area.
On the Republican side, State Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop offered up the conservative response by saying Michigan government has gotten to big and called for an end to big spending. He said the legislature needs to focus on making difficult cuts to state programs and restructure state government.
Granholm said she will submit her budget for the next fiscal year to the legislature by February 12 as state law requires. She called on lawmakers to get an approved budget to her desk by July 1, hoping she does not see a repeat of last year’s delay in budget approval. Granholm was forced to sign a budget extension in 2009.
Click on the link below to read the full text of Governor Jennifer Granholm’s last State of the State Address.
