Dear Friend,

Together, we got a lot done in 2024.

We grew our economy with new business investments, and we used every tool in our economic development toolbox to continue bringing supply chains home, creating good-paying jobs, and leading the future of advanced manufacturing.

We lowered the cost of education from pre-K to college for Michigan families and kept feeding all 1.4 million public school students free breakfast and lunch.

We delivered record funding for our local first responders to keep communities safe. We protected Michigander's fundamental freedoms and, of course, kept fixing the damn roads.

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We showed the world what we’re all about in Michigan. We get stuff done. We take care of our community, friends, and family. We work together to build a brighter future.

Together, we made a lot of progress, and I am so grateful to my partners in the Michigan Legislature and the hard work of countless Michiganders who worked hard to move our state forward. Let’s keep our foot on the accelerator to grow our economy, lower costs, and make Michigan the best place to live, work, and raise a family.

Check out our 2024 accomplishments below!

Sincerely,

Gretchen Whitmer

Governor

Economic Development – Big Investments to Grand Openings

This year, we used every tool in our toolbox to grow our economy to deliver for our people, communities, and businesses in all 83 counties of the state. We took action to build the future of cars, chips, and clean energy, created good-paying jobs you can raise a family on, and grew our economy by bringing supply chains home. We cut red tape to incentivize job growth and made record investments in the development and revitalization of communities across the state.

We cut a lot of ribbons and moved a lot of dirt this year.

Union crews completed the bridge deck of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, and we reopened Michigan Central Station at the heart of Detroit. The Motor City broke records and exceeded expectations with the 2024 NFL Draft, showcasing Detroit’s vibrancy, strength, and status as a powerhouse for economic development.

We broke ground or opened businesses across the state from Michigan’s first-ever dedicated children's rehabilitation hospital in Grand Rapids, an advanced glass factory in Hillsdale County, a drivetrain testing facility in Ingham County, a chipmaker in Hemlock, and a submarine manufacturing base in Macomb County.

We announced a federal and state investment to reopen the Palisades nuclear power plant in Van Buren, which will become the first successfully restarted nuclear power plant in American history, and we continued our strong progress to build a heck of a lot more housing construction in every region of the state, including Northern Michigan and the U.P.  

Lowering Costs

This year, continued our work to lower costs and help Michigan families keep more of their hard-earned money. Whether you’re in college, have kids in school, or are ready to retire, we’re doing what we can to help make your life more affordable.

In July, I signed another balanced, bipartisan state budget that delivered on kitchen-table issues without raising taxes by a dime.

We expanded the Michigan Achievement Scholarship with the “Community College Guarantee,” giving every high-school graduate the opportunity to earn an associate’s degree or skills certificate from an in-district community college tuition-free. This fall, we lowered the cost of college by thousands of dollars for 56,100 Michigan students. In total, the scholarship is saving Michigan students and their families over $131.5 million this year with no- or reduced-cost tuition.

We expanded access to free pre-K for Michigan four-year-olds, prioritizing those who need it most, saving families $10,000 a year and giving every kid a solid academic foundation.

This year, MSDHA made the largest investment to build, rehab, or permit housing in Michigan history—a $1.4 billion investment for 10,000 homes, without raising taxes by a dime. By building more of every kind of housing—single-family homes, apartments, and mixed-use buildings—we will expand supply and lower cost while creating tens of thousands of good-paying jobs along the way.

We continued rolling back the retirement tax, which will put an average of $1,000 a year back in the pockets of 500,000 senior households. And we continued delivering checks from the Working Families Tax Credit, which we quintupled from 6% to 30%, delivering an average combined tax refund of $3,150 to 700,000 families, directly impacting nearly one million kids – almost half the kids in Michigan.

Investing in Michigan Infrastructure and Public Safety

Over the past year, we’ve made a lot of progress to fix the damn roads, bridges, and everything in between. As this construction season comes to a close, we have fixed nearly 23,000 lane miles of road and 1,600 bridges since I took office.

We completed major road projects across our state like the I-96 and I-696 projects in Oakland County and took big steps to restore our vital water infrastructure. As we look to the new year, we are staying focused on rebuilding our roads and bridges with the right mix and materials, so they stay fixed, supporting tens of thousands of good-paying construction jobs along the way.

In this year’s budget, we delivered record funding for our local first responders to keep communities safe. The budget increases revenue sharing for local governments by the largest amount in the past decade to hire, train, and retain more police officers, EMTs, and firefighters, establishes a new Public Safety Trust Fund, and funds community violence intervention programs to tackle the root causes of gun violence and crime.

Last year, we enacted commonsense gun violence prevention laws — universal background checks, safe storage, red flag laws, and stronger penalties for domestic abusers. This year, we built on our work to protect public safety and save lives by establishing the Michigan Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. Recently, we reached a new milestone by removing over 750 illegal guns off the streets as a part of the Operation Safe Neighborhoods program.

Protecting Fundamental Freedoms

This year, we made a lot of progress to protect every Michigander’s fundamental right to make their own decisions about their own bodies and ensure every family can choose to expand their family, when, how, or if they want to.

Last month, we launched a new program, Take Control of Your Birth Control, to ensure Michiganders have access to free contraception, lower the cost of family planning, and empower men and women to make their own decisions about their own bodies and lives. Michigan families can visit michigan.gov/takecontrol to find free family planning tools in their community like over-the-counter oral birth control pills, emergency contraception, condoms, and family planning educational resources.

This April, I signed the Michigan Family Protection Act, a package of commonsense, long-overdue changes to repeal Michigan’s ban on surrogacy, protect families formed by IVF, and ensure LGBTQ+ parents are treated equally under the law.

This builds on the progress we made last year when we repealed an extreme 1931 law and enacted the  Reproductive Health Act, repealing TRAP laws and enacting commonsense changes to protect reproductive health and freedom.