Michigan in a New Era:
Make Michigan the Easiest State to Build and Grow
For Michigan to thrive — creating jobs, raising incomes, building housing, upgrading infrastructure and making it easier to start and grow a business — we need clear rules and timely decisions. We need a streamlined government that lets people put their time, talent and capital to work. Right now, too many people are stuck in a maze — repeating paperwork, chasing signatures, getting different answers and waiting months for a simple yes or no. This isn’t about lowering standards, it’s about timely answers, fewer barriers, better service and a shift from gatekeeping to problem-solving. States that clear the path move forward — those that don’t, fall behind.
Inefficiency is expensive
In Washington state, residential permit approvals average 6.5 months, adding roughly $31,000 to each new home and pricing out more than 69,000 families.
A Michigan city’s sole electrical inspector missed a scheduled visit to a nonprofit’s new office space, causing cascading delays between building trades and other inspectors totaling six weeks and $35,000.
Where Michigan stands today
To compete, Michigan must apply results-driven approaches to remove barriers, improve service and streamline processes. Without action, we could fall further behind.
Customer service:
Michigan’s state services ranked 44th in customer service satisfaction in a 2024 national survey.
Slow approvals:
Project approvals that take weeks in Ohio can take months to complete in Michigan.
Permit delays:
The Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) missed decision deadlines for over half of air quality permits in 2024, as well as 1 in 3 groundwater permits and 1 in 6 wetlands permits
Local processes:
Detroit ranked 65th of 83 cities for “ease of doing business” in the most recent rankings from Arizona State University.
Higher costs:
Construction costs in metro Detroit are about 3.5% higher than Midwest peers and 13.3% higher than lower-cost locations in the South and West like Atlanta, Denver, Houston and Miami.
Actions to Take
Leaders must take bold action to reorient Michigan toward customer service — pushing culture and systems to consistently make life easier for residents and drive economic growth. Government must create a supportive regulatory environment and be a partner — not a roadblock — in building a high-growth future that benefits everyone.
1. Enable progress rather than blocking it.
Michigan must shift to a culture that makes development and business growth easier, faster and more predictable. That means a whole-of-government approach that prioritizes speed, customer service and accountability while assuring health and safety. Governors in Pennsylvania and Arizona have shown that tools like timeliness guarantees, public dashboards and disciplined process improvement can accelerate approvals.
This approach should include:
- Drive faster, more predictable approvals by establishing fast-track approvals for lowrisk reviews and priority projects, enforcing regulatory time frames, and requiring realtime process tracking and public dashboards for transparency. Train personnel in lean management, empower teams to streamline their processes and hold agencies accountable to performance metrics.
- Ensure simpler, more responsive service by launching a one-stop permitting portal and a concierge service for businesses of all sizes and individuals. Develop a solution-focused culture at EGLE and other agencies, using lean management and human-centered design to make processes simpler and faster.
- Lock in accountability by backing reforms with legislation to ensure process improvements stick and the regulatory environment stays growth-oriented — from mandating regulatory time frames and real-time tracking to simplifying procurement and licensing requirements.
- Modernize licensing with a comprehensive initiative to reduce unnecessary barriers to work in Michigan: modernize professional licensing, expand reciprocity with other states and reduce outdated requirements.
- Create a cabinet-level role in the next administration focused on improving customer service, efficiency and transparency of state government using proven models.
2. Make building homes, businesses and infrastructure more affordable.
Michigan must make it easier, more predictable and more affordable to build thriving and economically strong communities while maintaining health, safety and resident quality of life. Streamlining government processes to speed up development benefits people directly: it creates good jobs to expand incomes, drives down housing costs, improves services and modernizes infrastructure. Rising material and labor costs are already challenges; outdated, inconsistent rules only make matters worse. Michigan should cut those barriers.
Minnesota, Montana, Oregon and other states have helped make processes more efficient to spur development and economic growth by incentivizing communities to reduce barriers to development, expanding by-right development options, or offering state alternatives to local codes.
Michigan should:
- Expand allowable and by-right development options to reduce approval time and uncertainty.
- Harmonize municipalities’ standards to simplify processes while preserving safety and quality of life.
- Support private alternatives to inspection and approval processes.
3. Support and reward communities that embrace growth.
Building housing and starting or growing a business in Michigan often means navigating duplicative, slow and inconsistent local processes that weaken competitiveness and push investment elsewhere. The consequences of divestment are all too familiar to Michigan communities that have seen businesses close, jobs leave and infrastructure deteriorate. Cities across the country are making progress: Oakland, California, for instance, instituted a 20-minute online process for many types of construction permits.
Michigan must encourage and reward communities that embrace economic growth:
- Create a “competitive community” designation for local municipalities, rewarding communities that simplify processes while requiring baseline statewide standards (timelines, streamlined business licensing, transparent approvals) and prioritizing resources for improvement.
- Provide support to implement local concierge services tasked with helping businesses navigate state, city, township or county processes.
- Provide funding and technical assistance for regional growth plans, process streamlining and growth-oriented regulation changes.