On Whitmer and Michigan business

Daniel Howes' Weekend Essay

This week, Daniel Howes says Gretchen Whitmer’s budget address helped answer whether Michigan business still has a friend in the governor’s office: not so much. The net effect of her business tax proposals — most of which are unlikely to survive the Republican-controlled Legislature — would be a tap on the economic brakes just as the hometown auto industry’s blistering sales and profit pace is beginning to slow. Credit Whitmer with proving yet again an enduring truth of Michigan politics: it's consistently inconsistent, swinging from one partisan worldview to the other as predictably as crumbling roadways in the freeze-thaw cycle of late-winter Michigan.