Since launching her gubernatorial campaign in 2018, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has vowed to “fix the damn roads,” but her focus since taking office has been more closely identified with doling out taxpayer dollars to corporate recipients.

In her address at the 2025 Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday morning, Whitmer pledged to leaders from both parties, including President-elect Donald Trump, a spirit of collaboration and bipartisan solutions to deliver her promises for Michigan. It’s a far cry from her leadership when Democrats held a trifecta in the Michigan House, Senate, and Governor’s mansion.

“Now, I don’t want to pretend like we’ll always agree, but I will always seek collaboration first,” said Whitmer. “I won’t go looking for fights, but I won’t back down from them either.”

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When first elected governor, Whitmer unveiled a 45-cent gas tax hike in her first budget proposal to lawmakers. The three, 15-cent increments would’ve been added to the existing 23.6-cent gas tax by Oct. 2020 in an attempt to address funding to fix crumbling roads, an underperforming K-12 school system and water contamination following the Flint Water Crisis.

The then GOP-controlled state legislature gutted Whitmer’s proposal and instead approved a transportation budget in conference committee that provided $400 million in one-time spending for roads without raising the gas tax.

Near the end of Democrats trifecta during lame-duck session, Democratic lawmakers struggled to fulfil road funding. New proposed road funding that passed, included a state toll authority to examine putting tolls on busy interstate highways and increased annual vehicle registration by $100 per vehicle.

Another proposal for a 19-cent gas tax hike, that would have increased the state’s current 30-cent per-gallon rate to 49 cents, did not get taken up for a vote.

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Speaker of the House Matt Hall suggested reallocating all money generated by the state’s corporate income tax to road funding. But the corporate income tax revenue funds Gov. Whitmer’s Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve program has played a key role of her economic development strategy. Lawmakers have both provided billions in corporate subsidies through the SOAR funds and the state’s nearly drained surplus.

Some of the top recipients to receive incentives are the nation’s Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

Whitmer now urges the Legislature to do more to increase economic development through new tax credit laws that she signed into law Monday, creating a state-level research and development incentive.

“You can’t drive anywhere in Michigan where the local road ahead doesn’t include potholes,” said Rep. Donni Steele, R-Orion Township. “The governor used this speech as an attempt to justify the fact that she lost interest on important issues, regardless of how she tries to define her own legacy.”

Steele then took aim at Whitmer’s corporate welfare schemes.

“Businesses face a low median income, high unemployment, and a declining population, which all serve as indications the governor’s strategies are not working,” she said. “We need to cultivate our existing businesses by redirecting tax dollars away from handouts and back into the infrastructure improvements that matter most.”

Whitmer did not outline her exact intent to increase road funding in her speech on Wednesday, but she did highlight new avenues to explore to fund her project goals.

“The governor loves to put on a great show about bipartisan solutions to reduce costs on hardworking families, fix our local roads, improve our children’s education and boost our economy — but talk is cheap,” says Sen. Joesph Bellino, R-Monroe, in a statement.

Greg Manz, a spokesperson for Speaker Hall, said last year Hall put forth a road fund proposal that prioritized local infrastructure without raising taxes for residents. “That’s the plan he put forward then — and it’s the plan that remains on the table now,” said Manz.