It’s time for a fresh outlook. In Michigan, we need to set our sights even higher. We can’t be satisfied with being a good state-we have to become great again.
National experts at our recent CEO Summit in Detroit shared honest truths about where MI stands competitively – and the news is not as good as we’d hoped. While MI has been growing jobs, incomes and GDP faster than most states, our growth has begun to slow and we still rank below average in absolute terms on most measures of economic prosperity. That’s because we were hit harder than any other state during the Great Recession and other states aren’t standing still while we try to make up that lost ground.
In short, the data shows we are making good progress, but are still far short of being a Top Ten state.
So as we look forward to 2016, let’s not be satisfied with our recent progress, but set more aggressive goals. The actions we’ve taken to balance our budgets and improve our tax code have made a big difference. But our agenda moving forward must become more holistic – producing more educated and skilled talent, strengthening our economic development efforts, investing in our assets and ensuring our long-term fiscal stability.
No business, organization or family wants to be average. They want to be better. They want to be great. We should expect nothing less for our state.