The Whitmer Effect: Higher Taxes Fewer Jobs Less Opportunity

LANSING, MI — Michigan is losing jobs, residents, businesses, farmland, and opportunity while families continue facing higher costs and growing economic pressure. Critics say Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s policies have created a business climate where companies leave, workers relocate, and opportunities disappear.

Governor Whitmer Has Drained Michigan Of

• 8.8K net payroll jobs in the past year
• A $9 billion state surplus
• 68,000 residents from 2020 through 2024
• 14 Fortune 500 companies, nearly half the state’s total
• 40,500 undergraduate students from Michigan colleges
• Reading proficiency for 57,000 fourth graders in 2025
• $4 billion to $6 billion in taxable income shifted to other states
• 28,000 manufacturing jobs
• 100,000 acres of farmland in 2024 alone

Why Are People And Businesses Leaving?

• Higher taxes making Michigan less competitive
• Regulations making it harder to operate businesses
• Rising energy costs tied to green energy mandates
• Workforce shortages and a shrinking population
• A declining business climate driving companies elsewhere

Questions Many Michiganders Are Asking

• Where did the $9 billion surplus go?
• Why are Fortune 500 companies leaving Michigan?
• Why are 57,000 fourth graders not reading at grade level?
• Why is college enrollment collapsing?
• Why are farmers losing 100,000 acres of farmland?
• Why are manufacturing jobs disappearing?
• Why are residents and businesses moving to other states?

What Michigan Needs

• Lower taxes to compete with other states
• Reduced regulations on businesses and manufacturers
• Investment in education and workforce development
• Support for agriculture and manufacturing industries
• Affordable and reliable energy costs
• Leadership focused on creating reasons for people and companies to stay

For many frustrated residents, the numbers tell the story. Michigan is losing jobs, losing residents, losing businesses, and losing opportunity while costs continue rising. Critics say the Whitmer effect is becoming impossible to ignore.