CLICK BELOW TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH GOV. WHITMER
Governor Gretchen Whitmer wrapped up a three-day trip to the Upper Peninsula on Thursday with a tour of the U.P. State Fair in Escanaba. The first-term Democrat told the crowd at the Delta County Chamber of Commerce luncheon that it is her first-ever trip to the Fair. The U.P. State Fair celebrated the tenth anniversary of being an independently-run event after decades of being run by the State of Michigan.
“So many people come together to make events like this possible,” Whitmer said. “Whether it’s the people preparing the food, or cooking the food, or the kids showing off their prized animals, this is a wonderful statement about who we are in Michigan. It’s a statement about where we are headed in Michigan as well.”
The governor told the crowd that the U.P. is “over-represented in the Whitmer administration”.
“For whatever reason, when I was in the legislature, I always gravitated toward the Yoopers,” she said to laughter and applause. “There’s no baloney, right? No time for baloney. They worked harder than anyone else, and they were some of the funniest people I ever met, too.”
In an interview with the Radio Results Network, Whitmer said she was impressed with the way people in the U.P. work together on everything.
“Communities have pulled business and multiple municipalities together, business, government, philanthropy, all together,” Whitmer told RRN News. “In a place like this, there’s so much creativity and collegiality. It’s not competition, it’s collaboration, in a way that I think the Lower Peninsula could learn from and benefit from.”
The governor also told RRN News that the state legislature needs to get working on a budget, noting that school districts have had their budget years begin already but “they’re left guessing” what their state appropriations will be. She also defended her call for a large gas tax increase, saying that it is necessary to make major road repairs.
“I got a flat tire here in the Upper Peninsula,” Whitmer said, adding that people who oppose her 45-cent-per-gallon has tax increase also “don’t want to keep paying to fix their cars” after damage done by “downright dangerous roads.”
“We are closing bridges every day,” she added.
