Governor Gretchen Whitmer delivered her eighth and final State of the State address Wednesday night, working to sell a divided Legislature on a 2026 agenda that she said will help define her legacy and set the stage for elections that will determine Michigan’s next political chapter.
Whitmer stepped to the rostrum for her final State of the State address, casting her gaze across the chamber where 25 years ago she began her political career as a freshman legislator.
Whitmer — who was the target six years ago of a kidnapping plot — said politics now operates in an environment that makes it difficult for people with different viewpoints to find paths to cooperation.
“Too many people are quick to judge and eager to spin everything they read, watch or hear,” she said. “It’s stoked by irresponsible leaders and organizations who get more power or make more money when we’re all angry at each other or sad about ourselves.”
She named her final priorities in office as raising reading scores, lowering health care costs, and making housing more affordable.
Whitmer promoted a three-part plan to address Michigan’s lagging reading scores, which are now among the lowest in the nation. The proposal would continue funding free preschool for all 4-year-olds, update how schools teach literacy, and pay for additional tutors and reading coaches.
Whitmer called Michigan’s low fourth-grade reading scores “a serious problem.”
“It’s not the fault of any one person, party, or event,” she said. “It’s not concentrated in any one state or any one kind of school district. Literacy is a national challenge. No matter who becomes governor after me, they’ll have to continue this work.”
Her call for action on literacy drew a standing ovation from lawmakers in both parties.
Whitmer said the literacy deficit will not be solved during her remaining months in office, but progress requires sustained investment.
On housing, Whitmer urged lawmakers to adopt a tax credit to incentivize construction of affordable homes. She also gave a nod to a bipartisan plan in the House that would set some statewide restrictions on local zoning laws.
“Our laws have made it easy to expand suburbs but hard to build walkable downtowns and main streets or do more with your own property,” she said. “It shouldn’t be so hard to build the homes people need in the places where they want to live.”
Local governments are pushing back against the zoning proposal, arguing the state should not take away communities’ authority to set their own land-use rules.
The governor also called on lawmakers to cap interest rates on medical debt, prevent medical debt from harming credit scores, ban medical debt-related home foreclosures, and require hospitals to set up financial assistance programs.
That comes as Michigan faces federal cuts to programs such as Medicaid. Whitmer said responding to those reductions will require additional state spending.
“If we include this throughout the budget process, we can protect benefits and maintain coverage for eligible Michiganders,” she said. “No matter what happens in Washington, D.C., let’s work together here in Lansing to help Michiganders pay less for the care they need.”
Legislative Republicans said they also want to address health care costs but argued Whitmer’s budget proposal would spend too much overall.
Republican House Speaker Matt Hall and Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt — who is also a GOP candidate for governor — said they see room to work with the Democratic governor on housing and medical debt. But Hall said proposals to raise taxes on vaping and nicotine products and online gambling, and to draw money from the state’s “rainy day” fund, are non-starters for Republicans.
“We’re not going to do any of her tax increases,” Hall said. “She’s proposing an $800 million tax increase."
Hall said Republicans are open to reaching a budget agreement if Whitmer drops those proposals.
“If they’re willing to back off that, we’ll get a deal pretty quickly,” he said. “If they’re dug in on raising taxes and raiding the state’s rainy-day fund, then we’re going to have a big budget fight because we’re not going to budge on that.”
Whitmer’s office has said federal funding cuts and dips in state revenue mean Michigan needs additional revenue to fill budget gaps.
Hall is instead advancing a plan to roll back property taxes — including taxes that fund schools and local governments — and replace that revenue with other taxes. His proposal would also require utilities to cut rates for consumers by at least $1 billion.
Nesbitt criticized Whitmer’s tax proposals and her signing of a bill repealing a policy that assigned A-through-F grades to schools based on student performance.
“Three years ago they repealed accountability measures,” Nesbitt said. “They repealed A-through-F reading measures. They repealed all these things that were trying to make us a better state for reading, for every kid to be able to read.”
Whitmer is term-limited and cannot run for governor again. She did not mention her post-gubernatorial plans, which would generally be considered out of bounds for a State of the State address. But speculation about her future has grown as her national profile has expanded.
There’s a crowded field of nine Republican candidates vying to replace her. Four Democrats have also declared their candidacy.
