WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee on Tuesday passed legislation that would update an 1887 elections law and clarify how electoral votes are certified, with the hopes of averting another attempt to overturn a presidential election.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat and Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, put forth the bill, S. 4573, known as the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act. The aim is to deter another Jan. 6 insurrection, in which former President Donald Trump tried to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election by citing the 19th-century law.

“On that day, enemies of our democracy sought to use this antiquated law to thwart the results of a free and fair election,” Klobuchar said in her opening remarks.

The bill passed on nearly a unanimous vote, 14-1. The only senator present to vote against it was Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.

Cruz called it a “bad bill,” and questioned why Republicans would support it.

“This bill is all about Donald J. Trump,” Cruz said.

Sens. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York were not present, but voted yes by proxy.

The U.S. House passed its version of the bill earlier in September, 229-203, with nine Republicans joining Democrats.

Trump and Pence

Blunt said there was broad support on both sides to update the act after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in which Trump pressured former Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. The vice president’s role in the certification of electoral votes isn’t exactly clear in the Electoral Count Act.

“We found out last year it’s outdated and needed reform,” Blunt said.

Klobuchar, who leads the committee, said it took months of bipartisan effort from the committee and other Senate colleagues to put the bill together.

Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said the committee did not try to “reinvent the wheel” but took a very careful approach to update the law.

“We did spend a lot of time trying to get it right,” Warner said.

He added that he wanted the committee to also consider protecting elections from future cyberattacks.

Bipartisan backing

The bill has bipartisan support in the Senate.

Sens. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, worked to gather the support of 11 Republican and 11 Democratic senators to cosponsor the measure, meeting the 60-vote threshold needed to advance past a filibuster.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said he “proudly supports” the overhaul of the Electoral Count Act.

“I strongly support the modest changes that our colleagues in the working group have fleshed out after months of detailed discussions,” McConnell said.

The timing on final passage of the bill is still unclear, though it could come up during the lame-duck session of Congress expected after the election.

“We’ll move into next year with this done,” Blunt said.

Schumer has not announced when he will bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote.

“Make no mistake,” Schumer said in a statement. “(A)s our country continues to face the threat of the anti-democracy MAGA Republican movement—propelled by many GOP leaders who either refused to take a stand or actively stoked the flames of division in our country—reforming the Electoral Count Act ought to be the bare minimum of action the Congress takes.”

McConnell, who sits on the committee, attended the meeting and reiterated his support.

“After 150 years, the Electoral Count Act needs some modern updates,” he said.

Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent, said that the bill is “merely intended to clarify (the) law.”

Senate version

The Senate bill has two provisions, the Electoral Count Reform Act and the Presidential Transition Improvement Act.

The Electoral Count Reform Act states that the vice president’s role in presiding over Congress when certifying electors is ceremonial and that the vice president does not have the power to object, accept or adjudicate disputes over electors.

Most notably, it also raises the threshold for lawmakers to make an objection to electors. Under current law, only one U.S. House representative and one U.S. senator needs to make an objection to an elector or slate of electors. Under the new law that would be raised to one-fifth of members from both chambers to lodge an objection.

The act also adds several reforms for electors from each state. It identifies each state’s governor as the official responsible for submitting the state’s official document that identifies the state’s appointed electors, and says that Congress cannot accept that document from any official besides the governor.

“This reform would address the potential for multiple state officials to send Congress competing slates,” according to the bill’s summary.

This reform is because Trump and his campaign tried to replace legitimate slates of electors in several states with fake electors who would cast ballots for Trump, which was also detailed by the Jan. 6 committee that is investigating the attack on the Capitol.

The act also provides an expedited judicial review—including a three-judge panel with a direct appeal to the Supreme Court—of any challenges made.

The bill also removes a provision in the law “that could be used by state legislatures to override the popular vote in their states by declaring a ‘failed election’—a term that is not defined in the law,” according to the bill’s summary. The bill reforms this by stating a state can move its presidential election day to the following first Monday in November every four years only if needed due to “extraordinary and catastrophic” events.

The Presidential Transition Improvement Act provides “guidelines for when eligible candidates for President and Vice President may receive federal resources to support their transition into office,” according to the bill’s summary.

It allows eligible candidates, during the short time period in “which the outcome of a presidential election is reasonably in dispute, to receive transition resources.”

Election Worker Protection Act

Separately, Klobuchar and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, on Tuesday introduced legislation to help ​​protect election workers, who have seen an increase in threats of violence.

The bill would provide grants to states to help recruit and train election workers and ensure their safety.

“Election workers are facing a barrage of threats from those seeking to undermine our democracy,” Klobuchar said in a statement.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture will invest $500 million to increase domestic fertilizer production, doubling its previous commitment, the agency announced.

The federal dollars would boost long-term projects and ready-to-go proposals that might have an effect as early as next year.

Some of the first projects to get funding from the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program are likely to include fertilizer plants that are already under construction and could be completed more quickly with an infusion of cash, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Tuesday.

“There are facilities that have been underway, are in construction, where opportunities may be accelerated to be able to deal with more product in 2023 or 2024,” he told reporters.

Vilsack mentioned an unspecified Michigan facility that might be a candidate for the funding. The Michigan Potash & Salt Company was expected to start construction this year on a $1.1 billion facility to process potash that is mined in the state, and one of the company’s executives has said the new federal funding would help the long-awaited project advance.

Potash — a potassium compound — is one of the most widely used fertilizers in agriculture. The United States is not a major global producer of it, according to USDA data. Canada, Russia and Belarus have accounted for about two-thirds of global production.

Michigan Potash has said its facility will have the capacity to fully supplant Russian imports of the fertilizer, but full production isn’t expected for three years.

The company did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this article.

The federal funding for fertilizer production is a result of costs that spiked in late 2021 and early 2022. Those prices have subsided somewhat but are still about double what they were at the start of 2021, according to a Green Markets’ fertilizer price index.

The price increases were driven by a number of factors, including shortages of natural gas used to make nitrogen fertilizers, limited fertilizer stockpiles and production disruptions caused by an August 2021 hurricane that struck Louisiana. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated the problem.

So in March, the USDA announced a new grant program to increase domestic production with an eye toward supporting new, independent operations. The Biden administration has sought to reduce consolidation in agriculture-related industries.

The USDA is expected to start soliciting grant applications soon for awards ranging from $1 million to $100 million, Vilsack said.

A first group of applications due within 45 days will be geared toward projects that might increase fertilizer supplies in 2023 and 2024. A second round of applications due within 90 days will be for longer-term projects.

The grants will be paid through the Commodity Credit Corporation, which has traditionally funded loans and payments to farmers and conservations programs of the farm bill. Earlier this month, the USDA announced CCC money would be used to support a more than $3 billion “climate smart” program. At the time, Vilsack said the CCC has sufficient funds to support the new programs and fulfill its farm bill obligations.

The fertilizer grant program is part of a longer-term strategy to reduce prices and the country’s reliance on foreign products. The Biden administration has resisted calls to cut tariffs on certain fertilizers to help alleviate the recent high costs, saying the short-term benefits do not outweigh long-term trade goals.

Vilsack said increased domestic fertilizer production combined with better techniques to avoid the excessive use of fertilizers will help stabilize supplies and farmers’ costs.

“We’re excited about this,” he said of the new grant program. “We think it’s going to help reduce the cost, increase the supply, maybe generate opportunities for farmer-owned cooperatives as well.”

The USDA is set to hold two online seminars to explain the  Fertilizer Production Expansion Program on Oct. 4 and how to apply on Oct. 6.

This story first ran in the Advance‘s sister outlet, the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

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Updated, 10:43 a.m. 9/28/22, with comments from Rep. Whiteford

State Rep. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell) on Wednesday resigned from the powerful post of House Appropriations Committee chair, citing differences in vision with others involved in crafting supplemental funding legislation that has been expected to pass later in the day.

Earlier this month Albert voiced his opposition to any supplemental spending this fall, although the state has about a $7 billion surplus, citing concerns about the economy. 

Appropriations leaders from both chambers were set to meet Wednesday morning for a conference committee on supplemental bills for the School Aid Fund and state departments through Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, but the meeting quickly went into recess without votes and has not been picked back up.

“ … Today it is time for a change in leadership for the House Appropriations Committee,” Albert said in a subsequent statement Wednesday morning, calling the measure being considered by the Legislature “reckless and irresponsible to taxpayers.”

“I cannot support the supplemental budget measure that is before the Legislature today. As I said at the beginning of this month — now is not the time for the state to commit to spending more money. … We simply do not know if tax revenues will come into the state as we anticipated previously.

“ … The measure the Legislature is considering today is reckless and irresponsible to taxpayers, and I will be voting against it,” Albert said, also claiming that increased government spending fuels inflation.

Michigan currently has a surplus of about $3.5 billion in the General Fund and $3.5 billion in the School Aid Fund.  The state also has $230 million remaining in its outreach and attraction reserve, which can be delegated to programs intended to attract and maintain businesses and investments in the state.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the bipartisan $76 billion budget for FY 2023 in July. The budget for FY 2022 will remain in effect until Sept. 30.

State House Speaker Jason Wentworth (R-Clare) | Ken Coleman photo

In a statement following Albert’s announcement, House Speaker Jason Wentworth (R-Clare) praised Albert’s “outstanding record” as chair before announcing that he is appointing state Rep. Mary Whiteford (R-Casco Twp.) to lead the committee for the rest of the term.

“The Appropriations chair is appointed by the Speaker, and they should have compatible visions for the committee’s work. I am stepping aside so the Speaker may appoint a new chair,” Albert had said in his statement.

Whiteford thanked Albert for his service in a statement.

“It’s an honor to be given this opportunity by Speaker Wentworth to oversee our chamber’s budget committee for the remaining months of the term,” Whiteford said. “I recognize that every dollar at our disposal belongs to the people of Michigan, and I feel a great sense of responsibility to ensure each dollar is spent wisely to make our state an even better place to live, work and raise a family.”

Also in the realm of supplemental spending is a bipartisan bill set to move through the state Legislature this week, crafted with Whitmer and GOP legislative leaders, that would shell out more money on economic development to attract businesses to the state.

That supplemental includes tax breaks for the lithium-ion battery manufacturer Gotion, which is headquartered in California and is a subsidiary of the Chinese company Guoxuan High-Tech Co.

A new Gotion facility in Michigan could lead to the company investing more than $3 million and creating 2,000 new jobs over the next decade.

But GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon has bashed the bipartisan deal in the works for being with a “foreign” company, although she did not criticize her fellow Republicans.

“Why is Gretchen backing China over her own country? Can she assure us there will be no influence from the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]?” Dixon tweeted Tuesday night, along with a video criticizing the move.

“Our taxpayer dollars are going to go to a Chinese corporation. This is something we have to hold Gretchen Whitmer accountable for,” Dixon said.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate advanced a catchall spending package Tuesday that would provide billions to aid Ukraine’s war effort, help communities throughout the country recover from natural disasters and keep the federal government funded through mid-December.

Democrats and Republicans voted 72-23 to move the measure toward a final vote later this week—a success that was only possible after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer removed from the measure an energy permitting reform bill from West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III.

The Manchin plan had drawn widespread rebuke from most Republicans, a few Senate Democrats and a large group of progressive U.S. House members—all of which could have risked passage of the government funding package before current law expires on Friday at midnight.

Schumer announced he would remove the energy permitting bill from the larger package on the Senate floor late Tuesday afternoon, shortly after Manchin released a statement calling on Schumer to do so.

Schumer said in his floor speech that he’d work with Manchin and others “to have conversations about the best way to ensure responsible permitting reform is passed before the end of the year.”

West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said just after the news broke that she didn’t know Manchin was going to call on Schumer to remove the energy permitting reform bill, which she planned to support.

Capito said negotiations on energy permitting reform will likely continue and noted that it could be attached to the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual policy bill for the Pentagon.

“I think the NDAA is still out there,” she said.

Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a statement removing Manchin’s permitting reform bill from the government spending package was the “right move” and urged leaders to keep it off “any future ‘must-pass’ legislation.”

“Many would agree that our permitting system could be improved,” Merkley said. “If the Senate is going to take up these questions in the future, it must be with a deliberative committee process and a robust, stand-alone floor debate that gives the American people, and especially those most impacted by this legislation, a full opportunity to weigh in.”

Kaine pipeline objections

Removing Manchin’s permitting reform bill from the must-pass government funding package was weeks in the making and followed more than 70 progressive Democrats releasing a letter that asked party leaders to keep Manchin’s bill out of the funding package that must become law before Oct. 1.

Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine earlier Tuesday rebuked the bill, saying Manchin obtaining approval for the Mountain Valley Pipeline as part of his plan “without normal administrative and judicial review” was unacceptable.

“The pipeline runs through Virginia for 100 miles and takes property from landowners, but I was not consulted as a deal was struck to approve it and thus not given an opportunity to share my constituents’ deep concerns,” Kaine said in a statement that announced he’d vote against the package.

Kaine then urged Senate leaders to pass a funding package “free of the unprecedented and dangerous MVP deal.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, also rejected the permitting reform part of the package, saying from the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon before Schumer removed the bill that it was a “poison pill.”

“What our Democratic colleagues have produced is a phony fig leaf that would actually set back the cause of real permitting reform,” McConnell said.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and 17 other Republican attorneys general sent a letter to U.S. Senate leaders Tuesday opposing Manchin’s energy permitting bill, writing the measure “contains sweeping new authority for (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) that could upend the traditional authority between the states and the federal government, and ultimately implement the Clean Power Plan by other means.”

The overall spending package, if approved by the U.S. Senate and U.S. House this week, would fund the government through Dec. 16. The measure must become law before Friday at midnight when current federal spending authority expires to avoid a funding lapse or a partial government shutdown.

That is a scenario Democratic leaders wanted to avoid, especially with just weeks to go before the November midterm elections.

New Mexico aid

The spending package, released just before midnight Monday night, would provide billions in funding to ease home heating and cooling costs for low-income households, community block disaster grants and for ongoing recovery efforts related to the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire that damaged much of New Mexico this spring.

It includes $12 billion in Ukraine aid, the third installment this year, bringing the total U.S. investment in the country’s war effort to about $66 billion.

Congress approved a $13.6 billion relief package in March, just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine and another $40 billion package in May — both with broad bipartisan support.

The Biden administration requested this tranche of Ukraine assistance funding total $11.7 billion.

U.S. lawmakers also opted to include $35 million “to respond to potential nuclear and radiological incidents in Ukraine, assist Ukrainian partners with security of nuclear and radiological materials, and prevent illicit smuggling of nuclear and radiological material.”

The package does not include $22.4 billion in COVID-19 funding or $4.5 billion for the monkeypox outbreak, both of which were requested by the White House and broadly rejected by Republicans.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said Tuesday he believes leaving out that public health funding is “shortsighted.”

Leahy said he would “revisit” the issue in December when Congress is supposed to have agreement on a full-year funding package.

Avoiding a shutdown

The short-term spending bill, sometimes referred to as a continuing resolution, or CR, is needed to prevent a government shutdown when the current spending law expires at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The stopgap is intended to give lawmakers and the Biden administration more time to reach an agreement on how much the federal government should spend during fiscal 2023, which begins Oct. 1, and where any increases in funding should be directed.

Bipartisan agreement on total discretionary spending levels, $1.512 trillion for the current fiscal year, would then allow the 12 panels in charge of an annual government spending bill to begin drafting legislation to fund dozens of departments and agencies.

President Joe Biden’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year asked Congress to approve $795 billion for defense programs and $915 billion for nondefense programs, which includes spending on the Homeland Security, Justice and Veterans Affairs departments.

Current law provides for $782 billion for defense spending and $730 billion for nondefense funding.

If Congress and the White House cannot reach agreement on the bills before their new December deadline, they can always pass another short-term spending bill that would extend into 2023.

That type of funding strategy is, however, broadly annoying to many federal departments, including the Pentagon.

Since the short-term stopgap spending bills continue current spending levels and policies into the new fiscal year, meaning federal departments typically can’t start new programs or boost spending in areas they targeted for additional funding in the budget request.

Voting against the package Tuesday night were Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Braun of Indiana, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Ted Cruz of Texas, Steve Daines of Montana, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Josh Hawley of Missouri, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Mike Lee of Utah, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, James Risch of Idaho, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Rick Scott of Florida, Tim Scott of South Carolina, John Thune of South Dakota, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

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Republicans have spent most of the 2022 cycle hurling attacks on the economy and inflation under Democrats Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and President Joe Biden — which many political analysts have said should help the party make gains during the midterms.

“The Whitmer administration top-to-bottom is infected with a culture of progressive, anti-business political activism. It’s stifling growth and destroying our state’s economic future by sending the wrong message to job-creators and businesses, in effect telling them that we don’t want them here,” GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon said last week during her “Open for Business” tour.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake), April 20, 2022 | Laina G. Stebbins

After the GOP-led Legislature in May approved the Republicans’ $2.5 billion tax cut plan in May, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) blamed Whitmer and Biden for inflation. 

“The increasing costs of everyday necessities affects all of us, stretching family budgets thinner and thinner — especially for the working class and those less fortunate — while state government revenues soar higher and higher. These are the unfortunate, if not predictable and avoidable, consequences of the economic policies that have been pushed by President Biden and Gov. Whitmer over the past two years,” Shirkey said. 

Whitmer vetoed the legislation, calling the sweeping changes to the tax code constitutionally “invalid and unenforceable.” 

Whitmer instead proposed targeted tax relief, eliminating the tax on pension income, which she says will save a half-million seniors an average of $1,000 per year, and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for working-class Michiganders from 6 to 20% of the federal credit, which she contends will “put nearly $3,000 in the pockets of 730,000 working families.”

While the GOP plan would have lowered the state’s personal income tax rate from 4.25% to 4%, Dixon has promised an even bigger tax cut if she’s elected. The Republican wants to phase out the personal income tax until it’s eliminated, modeling states like Texas.

The personal income tax brought in $14.5 billion during Fiscal Year 2021, per the Michigan Department of Treasury in May and is one of the biggest sources of state tax revenue.

In recent weeks, Whitmer has gone on offense on economic issues, touting the success of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), his student debt reduction plan and economic rebounds after the pandemic. That comes even as some Republicans have suggested Whitmer, who’s running for reelection against former right-wing commentator Tudor Dixon, would distance herself from an unpopular president.

However, Biden’s poll numbers have been rising since he signed the $750 billion IRA in August, while Whitmer has held steady leads against Dixon.

Gov Gretchen Whitmer at Eastern Market in Detroit on March 16, 2022 | Ken Coleman

The bill lowers health care costs and energy costs, creates new jobs, cuts the nation’s deficit by $300 billion, ensures billion-dollar-companies pay a minimum of 15% tax and invests in communities’ infrastructure and natural resources. It is estimated to create 1.4 to 1.5 million jobs nationwide by 2030.  

“The Inflation Reduction Act will create and protect millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs across the nation, and I am taking action today to ensure that Michigan is ready to fully harness its benefits,” Whitmer said in a statement this month. “Together, we can create and protect hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs here in Michigan, building and retooling factories, surging clean energy production and doing what we do best — putting the world on wheels. The IRA’s job-creating investments will build on our momentum, keeping unemployment low and economic growth high.”

Whitmer signed a number of executive directives earlier this month that go tandem with the passage of the IRA.

The executive directives are aimed at lowering costs of prescription drugs in Michigan, using available resources from the IRA to create jobs in Michigan and mobilizing state departments to assist businesses in reducing energy and supply chain costs by helping companies reduce emissions, retrofit facilities and use clean energy to power operations. 

Dixon has made her opposition to the IRA clear.

Before the IRA made its way through Congress, Dixon called on Whitmer to join her in asking U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) and Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.) to “vote NO on the misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act as it will raise taxes on all Michiganders which is the last thing they can afford right now.”

Biden also released last month his long-awaited student debt plan. It forgives up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 and married couples earning less than $250,000, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, will not be treated as taxable income in Michigan. 

Whitmer also has touted this as a success for the nearly 1.4 million Michiganders who have federal student loans.

“People can use these savings to buy a home, start a business, get married or start a family,” she said in a statement. 

But Republicans in Michigan and across the country have been strongly critical of Biden’s move.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon during a Farmers for Dixon press conference at Swisslane Dairy on Sept. 19, 2022 | Allison R. Donahue

Appearing on “Fox and Friends” on Aug. 25, Dixon panned the plan as “the tax they said they weren’t going to raise on people. It’s all the people [that] said, ‘I don’t want to take a loan’ or paid off their student loans and they’re now on the hook for other people’s loan [sic].”

Dixon also dismissed Biden as playing politics.

“And let me look at my watch,” she said. “It looks like midterms are coming up. I think it might just be another way to buy votes.”

Before some signs of an economic bounceback over the summer, Democrats were on defense over high inflation rates. 

The U.S. inflation rate is still estimated around 8.3% in August, but has been dropping. This year, it reached the highest level in June, with prices increasing 13.3% from January 2021 to June 2022, according to the U.S. Joint Economic Committee. In June, when the report was released, Michigan had the second highest monthly inflation costs, which grew by $103 — only behind Illinois ($115).

After months of high gas prices, drivers have gotten some relief at the pump. In June, the highest price recorded was $5.02 per gallon. The average national price per gallon is now $3.75, per AAA, which is still up from last year’s average of $3.19 per gallon. There are concerns about prices rising again with Hurricane Ian set to hit Florida. Gas averages $4.12 per gallon in Michigan, with a recent uptick due to a refinery fire in Indiana. That’s up from last year’s average of $3.24.

Whitmer attributes some of the falling gas prices to an executive order she signed last month that lifted limits on hours drivers can drive if they are carrying gas and diesel and allowed the state to begin the transition to the fall fuel supply.

But Republicans are still on the attack, saying Democrats should have rolled back the gas tax.

“Failed policies from the Biden Administration continue to hurt the economy in Michigan and now gas prices are back on the rise,” Republican State Leadership Committee spokesperson Mason Di Palma said on Tuesday.

Other economic indicators have been more positive. The Department of Treasury reported at the May Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference that Michigan wages and salaries rose 9% in 2021 and are forecast to rise 9.8% in 2022. Personal income rose 5.2% in 2021 in Michigan and is forecast to increase 2.7% in 2022. 

The national unemployment rate is low at 3.7% for August. Michigan’s preliminary unemployment rate for August is slightly higher at 4.2%. That number has been decreasing since April 2020, at the start of the pandemic. 

Ken Kollman, the director of the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research and a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, said it’s not surprising that Democrats, like Whitmer, are reshaping their campaigns around the momentum of the improving economy. 

“They will adapt to the moment, and especially if they are getting some traction by touting their recent policies on student loan forgiveness or the recent reduction in gas prices that are happening nationwide,” Kollman said. “The Democrats are, of course, given that the governor and the president are incumbents, going to tout any economic successes they can.”

In May, the Detroit Regional Chamber released findings from a statewide poll of registered Michigan voters that showed Michiganders’ top concerns then were inflation and economy. Nearly 73% of respondents said the economy was on the wrong track due to inflation. 

The Democrats are, of course, given that the governor and the president are incumbents, going to tout any economic successes they can.

– Ken Kollman, the director of the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research and a professor of political science at the University of Michigan

An August poll from the left-leaning, San Francisco-based firm Data for Progress (DFP) and Evergreen Collaborative, a left-of-center policy advocacy group founded by former staffers of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s 2020 presidential campaign, shows 64% of Michigan voters support the IRA. That includes 87% of Democrats, 65% of independents and 42% of Republicans in the state.

An EPIC-MRA poll surveyed Michiganders this month and found that abortion and inflation tied as voters’ top issue ahead of the election, with 24% of those surveyed listing each as their No. 1 priority. 

Kollman said focusing on the economy might help Democrats swing voters, rather than focusing on some of the more hot-button cultural issues like school curriculums and LGBTQ+ issues. 

“[Democrats] are going to try to avoid these issues because they’re not winning among the people they need to swing in these last few months,” Kollman said.

He said that Democrats biting back on the economy could hinder efforts from Republicans who are campaigning on the recession during the pandemic, businesses shutting their doors and companies moving out of state the last few years.

“Whether it will succeed or not, it is certainly an attempt to blunt some of those criticisms,” Kollman said. 

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Eligible Michigan homeowners or renters have until Friday to apply for a credit to help with energy bills. 

Michigan Treasurer Rachel Eubanks said “time is running out” to apply the state’s Home Heating Credit, a program available to eligible low-income, deaf, disabled or blind persons as well as disabled veterans and seniors.

The credit, she said, is meant to provide the Michigan residents who qualify relief with heat bills as the state moves into fall and to ensure that more of their money is directed for other critical needs.

“If you haven’t already claimed the credit and are eligible to do so, please do not wait to apply,” Eubanks said in a Tuesday statement.

The state Treasury Department has been processing Home Heating Credit applications since January. To date, the average credit is $253, the office said. 

Through the end of August, treasury has processed more than 206,000 credit claims for a total of $52 million, Ron Leix, a spokesman for the department said in an email. 

Over the last five years, around 277,000 claimants each year have received the credit, with an average credit of $193.

The Home Heating Credit allocation is usually based on a comparison between an individual’s standard credit allowance or their heating costs as well as their total household resources – the total taxable and nontaxable income of both spouses or of a single person maintaining a household. 

Leix said the state’s Treasury Department works with nonprofits and community groups to increase access and awareness of the program. Eligible applicants, he said, usually apply for the credit when they file individual income tax returns during tax season from the end of January through mid-April. 

After the Friday deadline, next year’s opportunity to apply will open up when individual income tax season begins in early 2023. 

The Home Heating Credit form is available online. For more information about the program and eligibility, visit the Home Heating Credit website. 

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