Shelby Review

Republican lawmakers believe that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer betrayed small businesses when she vetoed $405 million in tax and fee breaks, according to reporting by Bridge Michigan.

House Appropriations Chairman Thomas Albert (R-Lowell) said the help to businesses Whitmer rejected wasn't tied to anything else in the state's COVID-19 relief plan.

"Yet the governor vetoed it anyway, and with it, she is killing off whatever hope struggling families and job providers had left," Albert told Bridge Michigan.

Whitmer had previously proposed $225 million in grants for businesses, which lawmakers in the GOP-led state Legislature turned down in their push for almost two times the dollar amount to help small businesses. Whitmer said she rejected the GOP's bill because they didn't negotiate with her directly.

"There were problems in the bills that I had to veto, and I expect the Legislature to step up to fix the bill to allocate all of the money so we can get back to normal as soon as possible," she said, according to Bridge Michigan.

Brian Calley is the current president of the state's Small Business Association and served as Republican lieutenant governor of Michigan between 2011 and 2019.  Calley says that Whitmer's move to deny sending help to businesses signals that Michigan doesn't believe in the importance of small businesses surviving the pandemic. 

Whitmer also rejected other aspects of relief efforts, including $150 million to help replenish the Unemployment Insurance Fund, $87 million for private schools and $10 million in grant dollars to help parents pay for summer school. 

Whitmer, however, did approve spending just under half of the $5 billion Michigan received from the federal government at the end of last year. Those dollars will help with vaccination distribution efforts, school funding, providing pay increases for direct care workers and helping families struggling to pay their rent and utility bills.