LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
On Wednesday, Governor Whitmer gave her 2022 State of the State Address. Her speech highlighted the areas of progress our state has seen over the last year, along with the Governor’s plans for the future.
Some of the highlights over the last year include:
- Reaching more than a 70% vaccination rate for eligible Michiganders age 16 and up
- Passing a $17 billion K-12 spending bill, closing the funding gap between schools in Michigan without raising taxes
- Sent bonuses to every public school teacher and support staff professional to thank them for their service during the pandemic
- Investing $4.75 billion to repair, replace or rehabilitate 13,198 lane miles in our state
- $1.4 billion in childcare funding to expand access to high quality and affordable childcare
- Invested $565 million to support more than 7,000 childcare providers with emergency federal relief through the Child Care Relief Fund and Child Care Stabilization Grant
- Ranked the third-highest GDP in the nation, with a $3.5 billion budget surplus after a previous $3 billion deficit
- Set up 23 economic relief programs delivering more than $240 million to small businesses in all 83 Michigan counties, supported more than 25,000 companies and retained more than 200,000 jobs
- Launched the MI Clean Water Plan and invested more than $2 billion in drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater facilities, supporting 30,000 jobs
- Invested more than $100 million in parks and public lands.
- Put 170,000 Michiganders on tuition-free paths to good-paying jobs through Michigan Reconnect, a program for Michiganders age 25 and up, and Futures for Frontliners, which is for those who served on the frontlines of the pandemic.
- Made investments to ensure 100% of eligible four-year-olds can attend free, high-quality preschool under the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP)
- Signed bipartisan Clean Slate bills making hundreds of thousands of Michiganders eligible to have their records expunged, which expands their opportunities for jobs, housing, and education
- Repealed the tampon tax, which saves women from paying taxes on up to $4,800 on feminine hygiene products over a lifetime
The Governor also laid out her priorities for 2022:
- Phase-out Michigan’s Retirement Tax, saving half a million households an average of $1,000 a year.
- Raise the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit to provide more than 730,000 working families an average combined federal and state tax refund of $3,000.
- Expand access to mental and behavioral health.
- Hold drug companies accountable for the skyrocketing costs of insulin, and also cap insulin prices.
- Offer a $2,000 rebate for the purchase of an electric vehicle on top of the $7,500 federal credit and a $500 rebate for at-home charging infrastructure.
>> Read more about Governor Whitmer’s accomplishments and proposals.
>> Read my full statement on the State of the State address.
COFFEE HOUR
In today’s coffee hour, we had the pleasure to meet and speak with Dr. Karen Korematsu, the daughter of the late civil rights icon, Fred Korematsu. Dr. Korematsu is the founder and Executive Director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute.
In 1942, at the age of 23, Fred Korematsu was ordered to leave his home and join other incarcerated Asian Americans at a Japanese Internment Camp. When he refused, he was arrested. He appealed his case all the way up to the Supreme Court, which ruled against him in the 1944 Supreme Court Case Korematsu v. U.S., where the government argued that “the incarceration was justified due to military necessity.”
In 1983, a team that included the Asian Law Caucus re-opened Korematsu’s case on the premise of government misconduct. On November 10, 1983, his conviction was overturned. He remained a civil rights activist and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. In 2010, California passed the Fred Korematsu Day bill, which made January 30 the first day in the US named after an Asian American. His daughter, Dr. Karen Korematsu, started the Fred T. Korematsu Institute in 2009 to continue his social justice work.
It was an honor to have the opportunity to speak with Dr. Korematsu and learn more about the story of her father and the work of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute. You can watch the full conversation and coffee hour on YouTube.
>> Learn more about Fred Korematsu and the Fred T. Korematsu Institute.
Sincerely,
