The health of our economy is critical to helping all Michigan families prosper. Unfortunately, we continue to see economic fallout resulting from anti-business decisions being made by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the state Legislature.
Everyone should be held accountable for their decisions, especially our elected leaders.
That’s why we started the Michigan Economic Scorecard, which is a continuously updated tool that helps people see whether our state is on the right or wrong track to economic prosperity.
And as we get closer to the end of the first quarter of 2024, we are unfortunately seeing more indications that Michigan is moving down the wrong path as these misguided policies are fully enacted into law, including the repeal of right-to-work, reinstating prevailing wage and ending the requirement that third graders learn how to read.
For example, Michigan’s personal income per capita dropped from 16th nationally in 1999 to 39th in 2022, according to a Michigan Future Inc. report released in January 2024. The amount of money Michiganders earned during the last 23 years increased by only 24.2%, while the national average climbed by 42.1% during the same period. People can get a link to the report here.
In addition, Michigan now ranks in the bottom 14 states for its economy, according to the U.S. News and World Report. The ranking measures each state’s business environment, labor market and overall economic growth. Michigan also ranks in the bottom 10 states overall. Get full details here.
U-Haul also has ranked Michigan as a bottom-five state for outbound population migration, despite the governor’s supposed emphasis on trying to get people to move to the Great Lakes State.
Despite this recent bad news, we inherently believe that Michigan can still reverse course. The West Michigan Policy Forum will continue to push for better policies in 2024 while opposing bad policies that will move our state backward.
In the meantime, please feel free to share the Michigan Economic Scorecard on social media. Help us spark a movement to positively transform Michigan’s future and finally make us a top 10 state.
