Wednesday night, Michigan learned about “Bethany from Lambertville,” whose husband was fined for working on someone’s house with his Ohio license. Apparently, the couple just moved to Michigan, and he hadn’t gotten his Michigan license yet.
“Come on . . . that’s ridiculous,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in her State of the State. “Despite our football rivalry, we should honor their licenses. I know a lot of barbers and hair stylists go through this, too.”
The Governor is proposing executive and legislative action that would refund licensing fees for applicants who end up waiting beyond the state department’s own deadline for an approval or a denial.
The move is a follow-up to a 2023 executive order regarding issuing permit refunds to applicants who have to wait longer than a specific amount of time for a response.
“I can enact some of these changes alone, through executive action – and I will,” Whitmer said. “But others require state law. This year, let’s make it easier for people to get and keep a good job, not harder.”
The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) was “pleasantly surprised” to hear Whitmer dedicate nearly an entire page of her speech to the topic.
The reference came hours after Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton), Michigan Republican Party Chair and Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) and Sen. Joseph Bellino Jr. (R-Monroe) noted at a Wednesday morning press conference that refunds aren’t the issue with the Governor’s bureaucracy. It’s timely, common-sense responses that they claim are lacking.
Nesbitt and Bellino laid out several anecdotes to prove their argument.
- After the groundbreaking of a $440 million aluminum recycling factory in a rural part of the state, the company called Nesbitt for help in getting the permit needed to do a curb cut along an M highway that saw about 3,000 cars a day. Nesbitt said it took 10 days going back and forth with the Department of Transportation to get that permit.
- A boat manufacturer in Holland that’s been around for 70 years and employs 800 people, wanted to turn a 5-foot-wide dock on Lake Macatawa into a floating 10-foot-wide dock. Three years later, the manufacturer is $1.3 million deep in lawsuits to get the dock.
- In Pontiac, Williams International was allegedly ready to put another 500 jobs in the area with a $1 billion investment, but never got a response back from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).
- In Monroe, Bellino said the largest river pollution spill in Monroe County history was set back because it took six days to obtain the permit necessary to clean out the tunnel underneath U.S. Route 223 and 23.
- In Detroit, an effort to put 49 market-rate apartments into abandoned buildings has been slowed to a crawl because neighbors have successfully argued that the development would increase traffic.
“These are stories you don’t hear about, you don’t see, because they’re not the ones that are making headlines and the MEDC wants to talk to you about, but permitting continues to be a real sore point,” Nesbitt said.
The problem, Nesbitt said, is the Whitmer administration brought in so many “left radical environmentalists” into positions within the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and other departments that they’re able to gum up the works.
Instead of looking to grow Michigan’s economic garden, Whitmer and Democrats have “taken Roundup on it.”
After speaking with numerous grassroots Republicans over the last three months or more, Runestad said the most prevalent opinion he heard about the governor was the perception that Whitmer is “very, very anti-business.”
Rep. Jerry Neyer (R-Shepherd) was quick to respond to the permitting debate, saying, “I just hope she’s ready to grab her shovel and get to work. We can start by refunding farmers for the manure spreading fee that just went into effect. It’s ironic, really, that lawmakers are paid to make crappy legislation while the state is making farmers pay to get rid of crap.”
He said if the Governor wants to cut government red tape, “I’ll gladly be a partner in those efforts.”
Article courtesy MIRS News for SBAM’s Lansing Watchdog newsletter
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