This morning at 11 a.m. Governor Gretchen Whitmer held a news conference and made several important announcements regarding state government’s response to COVID-19.
First, the good news! This morning Governor Whitmer indicated the COVID-19 outbreak in Michigan is subsiding. After several weeks of encouragement by the Michigan Chamber and others, the Governor also announced a short-term extension of her stay-at-home order and some changes to the order. The Governor’s recent statewide lockdown order had a devastating economic impact on hundreds of thousands of working families and job providers.
The revised order is extended till May 15, 2020 and appears to lift some unreasonable or unworkable restrictions. Time will tell what impact these changes will have. Going forward the Chamber will: carefully review details of the extended order; closely monitor how the new order is implemented & enforced; and seek input from Chamber members across the state.
We appreciate the Governor’s discussion of when and how to begin safely reopening Michigan’s businesses. However, the Governor again today declined to adopt the most recent federal guidance identifying critical infrastructure workers, which will continue to make Michigan an outlier in comparison with most other states. The Governor’s new statewide order also fails to recognize important regional difference in our state and does not include any limits on the growing number of unworkable local ordinances now popping up all over Michigan.
The Governor seems determined to retain almost complete control over how 9.9 million Michiganders live, work and do business into mid-May or beyond, while at the same time excluding the entire Michigan Legislature from these critically important public policy decisions. We remain concerned the Governor’s unilateral approach means other states will continue to do a more balanced and effective job of protecting lives and livelihoods.
We strongly urge Democrats and Republicans in the State House and Michigan Senate to remain in session to provide ongoing input and oversight of state government’s response to COVID-19. We encourage you to review the Governor’s new Executive Order and share your thoughts with us at info@michamber.com