(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Three years after enforcing economically and socially devastating lockdowns, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has launched a commission to study the reasons for population decline in the leftward-trending state, the Detroit News reported.
As of December 2022, census data indicated that about 40,000 residents had fled the state since the pandemic, the Detroit Free Press reported. Whitmer’s radical policies on abortion and election integrity, as well as a culture of political and judicial corruption likely did little to help in the traditional swing state.
Via executive order, Whitmer formed the “Growing Michigan Together Council,” a group of 28 members who are to develop policy recommendations for the purpose of retaining college graduates and recovering the state’s diminished manufacturing base.
According to the order, “Michiganders are Michigan’s most important resource.”
The governor added that “to usher in a better tomorrow, we must collaborate to grow Michigan together today.”
Taking advantage of the state’s “talent pipeline,” Whitmer said that the aim of the council is to target job growth, improvement in infrastructure and education from pre-school through university.
The council was also tasked with locating potential new “revenue sources” to “address gaps.”
And though the council will have no lawmaking authority, it will serve as an advisory body to the governor’s office.
Whitmer, speaking at the annual Mackinac Policy Conference, told reporters that the commission was meant to be nonpartisan.
“This work has got to continue. It shouldn’t be individual-driven,” Whitmer said.
“It shouldn’t be party-driven,” the George Soros-backed governor continued. “It really needs to be a focus on Michigan, on growing Michigan.”
Whitmer said she wants to find out exactly what can be done, and exactly how much that would cost the state.
“I have assumptions, but I want data,” Whitmer said.
“I want expertise that is informing the work,” she continued. “I don’t profess to have all of the answers. That’s why I’m soliciting real thought leaders.”
John Rakolta, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, will head up the council.
He noted that, even before the far-left governor, Michigan’s population had been languishing for several decades.
“Our state has been stagnant for over 30 years in terms of population,” Rakolta said.
“Our demography is stagnant,” he added. “We are 50th out of 51 states and Washington D.C. in terms of population growth, and that has to change.”
