State Rep. Dave Prestin, R-Cedar River, released the following statement Wednesday regarding Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s State of the State address.

“The governor touted her green energy plan as a success, but green energy and electric vehicles don’t work in the Midwest. I watched Democrat members give standing ovations for policy after policy, yet when the governor spiked the ball on her radical energy legislation, the same members who voted yes ironically wouldn’t stand in support of their own vote. Michigan only makes up less than one percent of global emissions. Their plan isn’t saving the world. Do we expect Russia, China, and India to sacrifice their economies to cut emissions, like Michigan did? I don’t think so. The only thing Michigan has accomplished is virtue signaling to the Biden administration to harvest the hundreds of billions of federal dollars included in the Inflation Reduction Act.”

“Now, the governor wants to use your tax dollars to bribe people to buy electric vehicles. I’d encourage her to look at how well those same vehicles held up in Chicago during the most recent cold snap. Range anxiety is real. Especially in rural America. When you’re empty on the side of the road, I can easily bring you a can of gas. It’s a little more difficult to bring you a generator with that same can of gas just to charge a car. In winter, we don’t walk to the next gas station in the U.P. We freeze.”

“In the 2024 budget, education spending outpaced inflation by $2 billion, but seven out of every 10 fourth graders in Michigan schools are unable to read at grade level. We have a massive problem with allocating funding for local school districts, especially to disproportionately underfunded schools in the Upper Peninsula. Yet, all Gov. Whitmer had time to talk about was providing two free years of community college tuition for every high school graduate. We already have a widely successful Early-Middle College program that achieves the exact same goal. Yet, that program isn’t shiny and new anymore, so the governor has moved on.”

“Our local roads and bridges are falling apart around us. Instead of using our budget surplus to fix our local roads, the governor took a victory lap on her borrowed money that could only be used for roads that weren’t in the most desperate need of repair. How many more of these speeches before she delivers?”

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