State Rep. John Roth, R-Interlochen, released the following statement Thursday regarding Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s State of the State address. The governor called for several expensive new programs, including two years of free community college and tax rebates for electric vehicles.

“People are leaving Michigan in droves. Yet, the governor’s only response is to announce new programs that will almost certainly raise costs even higher. Our kids want to move to other states to escape high taxes, bills, and the ever-growing number of potholes. Every person that moves away means less kids in our schools, less shopping in local businesses, and less tax revenue in local municipalities.”

“Instead of focusing on lower costs, the governor plans to reward rich people for buying expensive new cars, specifically pushing them toward electric vehicles. The governor fails to realize that electric vehicles aren’t going to work in Michigan, especially not up north. We all heard about the mass failure of EV batteries in Chicago a few weeks ago. Northern Michigan gets a lot colder than Chicago. State government needs to get its thumb off the scale and stop pushing people toward this experimental technology.”

“We need to lower taxes to get people back to Michigan. We can start by reversing the income tax hike Democrats insist on keeping. The governor blew through a $9 billion budget surplus last year. They gave out more than $2 billion to their political friends for pools, solar farms, zoos, opera houses, and more. It’s a bunch of baloney the governor can’t make the effort to send hard-earned money back to the taxpayers who need it the most.”

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