Facing population crisis, Whitmer opens Michigan growth office — with no new staff

Michigan’s sluggish population growth threatens the state economy. A new state office is dedicated to addressing the problem. Bridge Michigan illustration.

by Ron French (Bridge Michigan)

LANSING — A new state office will try to jump-start the state’s anemic population growth, but will have to do so without any new employees.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration on Friday announced the creation of Michigan’s Growth Office.

It’s charged with leading efforts to recruit residents to the state that has suffered decades of stagnation. But it will do so with the same four-person staff already in place and performing most of the same duties, now split between the Michigan Department of Economic Development and Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.

The new office, housed within MEDC,  is expected to implement  the recommendations of Whitmer’s population commission, called the Grow Michigan Together Council, which was recently disbanded.

“Michigan is focused on growing our state’s population and economy by retaining current residents and attracting new Michiganders,” Whitmer said in a statement early Friday.

“The Michigan Growth Office established within MEDC will implement the bipartisan recommendations of the Growing Michigan Together Council’s blueprint for growth and continue to tell our story far and wide.”

Bridge Michigan chronicled the consequences of the state’s population trends in a series of stories in 2023.

Michigan has 10 million residents  and remains the 10th most populous in the nation.

But it has ranked 49th in growth since 1990, ahead of only West Virginia, contributing to job shortages statewide, difficulties attracting new businesses, an aging citizenry and other financial and quality-of-life challenges.

The 20-person population council, announced with much fanfare by Whitmer in May 2023 at the annual Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference, developed an 85-page report of recommendations for reversing Michigan’s tepid population trends.

Among the recommendations: education reform, increased public transportation and community investments.

The report attracted criticism for setting a goal to make Michigan a top-ten state for population growth by 2050, but including no cost estimates and proposing a broad wish list.

The commission concluded it was not “responsible for us to publish a specific estimate when our recommended strategies require systemic changes.”

The new office is to be led by Hillary Doe, who is already doing the same job as the state’s chief growth officer.

“It will take all of us linking arms and leaning in with sharp elbows to reverse Michigan’s population trends,” Doe said in a statement. “Strategic investments in the priorities from Michigan’s blueprint for growth ensure we continue to build momentum statewide.

Earlier this week, before the announcement of the new office, several people involved in the now-disbanded population commission told Bridge they were  disappointed by the state’s response to the issue.

“I don’t hear anyone talking about it (the report),” John Rakolta, co-chair of the Grow Michigan Together Council, told Bridge on Wednesday. “You had this massive effort with bipartisan solutions, and it died.”

A new office for the same four state employees already addressing the issue isn’t likely to be considered a step forward to critics.

“I think it (Michigan’s population woes) are more front of mind, but are they (state leaders) doing anything about it?” asked Eric Lupher, president of Citizens Research Council, which worked with the population commission and authored its own report on the impact of the state’s population woes.

“It’s hard to point to anything they’re doing about it.

“The question is, what’s next?” Lupher told Bridge. “Are they working with legislators on a bill”

State officials point to separate but numerous allocations in the 2024-25 budget as examples of efforts tied to growth strategies, including $45.5 million to support talent and growth efforts at the MEDC and the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.

The new office will control how some of those funds are used.

Other efforts include: $84 million for business innovation; $30 million in increased funding for the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, the state’s major college scholarship program; $100 million toward affordable housing construction and $75 million toward public transit.

Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, Inc., a nonprofit think tank focused on increasing the state’s prosperity and college-going culture, says more is necessary.

Glazer said the population commission’s report, released in December 2023, was “the best economic plan maybe ever.

“What’s been disappointing is that it’s had no champions, nobody in the Legislature or administration,” Glazer said. “I’m mystified.”

This article is being republished through a syndication agreement with Bridge Michigan. Bridge Michigan is Michigan’s largest nonprofit news service and one of the nation’s leading and largest nonprofit civic news providers. Their coverage is nonpartisan, fact-based, and data-driven. Find them online at https://www.bridgemi.com/.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.