Whitmer Neglected Small Businesses

Whitmer Is Hoping You Forget How Awful She Has Been To Small Businesses

“During small business week, we mourn the loss of countless small businesses that shuttered thanks to Gretchen Whitmer’s pandemic management,” said Gustavo Portela, MIGOP Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director. “More than 37 percent of small businesses in Michigan shut their doors because of Gretchen Whitmer. Worse yet, when the time came to help these struggling businesses out, she vetoed crucial legislation that would have provided funding. And now, the small businesses that survived continue to hurt as a result of Joe Biden’s inflation forcing them to pay more for just about everything. Fortunately, this November, we’ll have an opportunity to elect a Republican to replace Gretchen Whitmer and help our small businesses thrive again.”

Whitmer’s Unconstitutional Lockdown Shuttered Small Businesses

• Whitmer proclaimed the first week in May as “small business week” in Michigan, but this superficial gesture does not hide her long-documented assault on small businesses.

• In 2020, there were 886,557 small businesses in Michigan which supported 1.9 million employees or 49 percent of Michigan’s workforce

• Whitmer’s unconstitutional lockdown led to 37 percent of small businesses shutting their doors exceeding the national average of businesses who were forced to close during the pandemic.

• According to an April 2021 study sponsored by Facebook, 36 percent of small businesses in Michigan laid off staff during the pandemic with 56 percent of those small businesses reporting that they laid off half or more of their staff.
  • 66 percent of small businesses in Michigan saw a reduction in sales over 10 percent.
• Michigan businesses across the state are struggling to find workers.
• There are 35,400 fewer leisure and hospitality workers in Michigan today compared to when the pandemic began in March 2020.
• There are 122,000 fewer jobs in Michigan since Whitmer instituted her lockdown.

Whitmer’s Agenda Has Been Devastating To Small businesses

• Whitmer vetoed COVID-19 relief for small businesses.
  • In March 2021, Whitmer vetoed $652 million in federal Covid-19 relief funds for small businesses.
  • In June 2021, Whitmer vetoed legislation that would give small businesses tax relief for purchasing PPE.
  • The Bill was unanimous in the Senate and near unanimous in the House.
  • Detroit Regional Chamber Vice President Brad Williams blasted Whitmer’s veto and said that the relief plan was a bipartisan effort.
  • Michigan Chamber of Commerce CEO Rich Studdle said “the Governor talks about ‘bipartisanship’ but doesn’t mean it.”

• Whitmer prolonged getting Michiganders back to work.
  • Biden pushed for unemployment checks that prolonged unemployment by incentivizing workers not to return to work.
  • The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) improperly paid $8.5 billion in fraudulent or ineligible claims after the UIA invented four edibility criteria categories not authorized by the CARES act.
  • UIA knowingly paid out thousands of fraudulent claims after gutting the fraud investigation unit and stripping away even the basic fraud protection protocols.
• Whitmer backed President Biden’s unconstitutional employer vaccine mandate opposed by small businesses.
  • Whitmer initially opposed the mandate, telling small business leaders in rural Montcalm County that the mandates are “a problem for all of us.”
  • However, after pressure to conform, Whitmer got in line with the Biden talking points and backed the employer mandates saying “I appreciate what President Biden is trying to accomplish … It’s about saving lives. It’s about getting more people vaccinated.”

• Gretchen Whitmer and Dana Nessel have been on a crusade to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline ever since both announced they were running for office in 2017.
  • If Line 5 ceases, it will be a disaster for the Michigan energy economy leading to:
    • 5.4 billion of economic damages in southeast Michigan and Ohio
    • The loss of thousands of skilled trade and union jobs
    • Speaking to Fox 2 Detroit in December, Whitmer dismissed concerns that Michiganders will lose their jobs if Line 5 is stopped.