• Affordability is a top issue this election year, and Michigan’s four remaining gubernatorial candidates have ideas on how to address it
• Proposals include cutting the state’s 4.25% income tax rate, revamping the state’s economic development arm and more
• Voters will have the chance to decide between either two Democrats or two Republicans during Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary election

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LANSING — Michigan residents are grappling with rising costs, and candidates vying to be the next governor say they have plans to make life and housing more affordable. 

With the Aug. 4 primary fast approaching, Bridge is revisiting an issue — affordability and the economy — that readers identified as one of their top concerns in Bridge Listens, our effort to identify Michigan’s top challenges this election year.

Bridge asked each candidate the same six questions, pushing for them to explain how they’d try to implement their proposals.

Click here to read the full, unedited responses by each candidate and their campaigns. Or read on to find summaries of their responses.

Affordability

The question: What powers, in your view, are available to Michigan’s governor to increase affordability and what actions would you take to bring down costs for everyday Michiganders?

Affordability is a big issue — and likely to be a banner topic in a year of high gas prices and continued inflation. How to bring down costs is a question that allows candidates to touch on their other policy plans.

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Benson, a Democrat, pointed to her experience running the Michigan Department of State as evidence she knows how to control costs and streamline government.

Among her proposals: A health care affordability board to “stop pharmaceutical companies from price gouging,” reforming the state’s energy rate setting process and “holding accountable investors who buy up properties and drive up rents solely to make a profit.”

She is also encouraging the Legislature to pass a $5,000 caregiver tax credit and expand Rx Kids, a first-in-the-nation program that gives cash to moms but has come under scrutiny from legislative Republicans.

Swanson, the other Democrat, said he would work to expand programs that have subsidized or funded free child care programs. He also pledged to expand a refundable tax credit program for low-income workers, known as the Earned Income Tax Credit, but didn’t mention how much further he’d like the expansion to go. 

In 2023, the Whitmer administration increased Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit from 6 percent to 30 percent of the federal level, boosting average state savings from $150 to nearly $750.

Republican candidates, meanwhile, are proposing to cut taxes and shrink the size of state government. All mentioned reducing or eliminating Michigan’s 4.25% income tax as a way to cut costs.

James tied his own affordability plans to promises to cut costs in energy and health care. He said he would order a “comprehensive audit of all expenditures” in state government, repeal Democrats’ clean energy mandate and try to phase out the personal income tax.

Johnson is pledging to fully eliminate the income tax, which generated $13 billion last year for schools and government services and has proposed a “MEGA audit” to identify corresponding cuts in state spending. 

Economic Development

The question: State government’s approach to attracting investment and growing its economy over the past decade has been changeful and often contentious. How would your administration foster economic growth, and do tools like the Michigan Economic Development Corp., Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund and legislatively set tax credits fit in your plans?

Every gubernatorial candidate — Democrat and Republican — told Bridge they want to make significant changes to the state’s economic development strategy. None of them were happy with Michigan’s current approach.

The embattled Michigan Economic Development Corp., which has been subject to intense scrutiny over the past two years, would also have to change, nearly every candidate argued. A handful of Republicans in the state Legislature have proposed a 53-bill package that would do just that, but it’s seen little movement.

Johnson called for “immediate reform” to the MEDC, but said that the “single biggest economic development initiative my administration will pursue is eliminating the state income tax.” 

James, likewise, said he would “reform MEDC with a bias toward retention and reclamation” — meaning a focus on retaining industries already here and bringing back those that have been lost. 

He said he’d fully cancel the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund, or SOAR, Whitmer’s flagship corporate incentive program that lawmakers have already stopped funding. 

James also said he would use executive reorganization powers to change the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy back to the Department of Environmental Quality — what it was known as during Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration — “to champion stewardship, not protectionism.”

Among Democrats, Swanson said he wants to “audit and restructure” the MEDC “to make it work for everyone” and proposed creating a new Office of Innovation “that can support startups and small business owners throughout the process.”

Benson said the MEDC and tax credits are tools that should only be used “with clear transparency and accountability.” 

She also suggested a broader lens for economic development, saying “more affordable housing, downtown revitalization, public spaces and safe neighborhoods” could “attract families and talent” to the state, as would improving infrastructure statewide.

“I want Michigan to lead in innovation by supporting startups and scale-ups, investing in research universities, creating sector-specific hubs, and launching tools like a Michigan venture capital fund while ensuring transparency and accountability in economic development investments,” Benson added.

Taxes

The question: After years of pandemic-era surpluses, Michigan is facing a changing fiscal outlook, with federal policy changes putting pressure on the state government budgets. What, if anything, would you seek to change about Michigan’s system of taxation, and how would you pay for any tax cuts?

Every Republican candidate in the race is calling for significant tax cuts but has not identified specific corresponding state spending cuts.

Johnson has centered his campaign around a promise to eliminate Michigan’s 4.25% income tax to save an average family $4,747 — though Bridge found the promised savings from the plan were overstated.

The income tax is the state’s largest revenue source. Eliminating it would cut about $13 billion used to craft annual state budgets. Johnson hasn’t proposed specific spending cuts but said he would identify them by conducting a “MEGA audit” of state government.

“A comprehensive review of state government will identify waste, inefficiency, duplication, and corruption that have accumulated over decades,” Johnson said. “Every dollar we save through better management is a dollar that doesn’t have to come from Michigan families.”

James took a more incremental approach, promising to cut 25% of the tax in his first year in office — that’d bring the state income tax rate down to 3.19% — “with a goal of eliminating the income tax entirely.”

“I will also create targeted tax breaks for businesses that train workers in the skills Michigan actually needs right now,” James added.

Democratic candidates didn’t call for any major cuts, and Swanson suggested businesses should be paying more. 

Corporations, which are currently subject to a 6% state tax, “place a large burden on our public infrastructure, and we must ensure the profits they gain from these public goods are used to maintain and replace our failing infrastructure and ensure affordable access to public utilities,” he said. 

Benson avoided specifics in her response to Bridge. She said she’d work to identify “new sources of revenue while cutting wasteful spending.”

“I’ll also work to create new revenue streams by encouraging growth in our tourism industry and other key economic drivers that will generate additional economic revenue and investment for our local communities and our state,” she said.

Housing

The question: Michigan has a longstanding housing affordability problem, from high rent prices to low supply. How would you work to increase the availability and attainability of housing for all Michiganders?

Housing is one area in which there was universal agreement among all the candidates: Michigan needs to make it easier and faster to build new housing. They all blamed government, in some capacity, for standing in the way and took bipartisan aim at permitting.

The Democratic candidates both called for zoning reforms to try to make it easier to build homes, with Benson saying she would target “restrictive” zoning and Swanson “exclusionary” zoning.

Republicans pointed to issues like “red tape” and bureaucratic hurdles, with Johnson saying that housing affordability “ultimately comes down to affordability itself.” 

Johnson used the question as a way to plug his plan to eliminate Michigan’s income tax, saying money back in peoples’ pockets could “mean the difference between renting and owning.”

Democrat Benson and Republican James both said permitting needed to happen more quickly. James also called for changing land use policy to “build housing near jobs so Michigan families can live where they work.”

But regulations, Bridge has found, are only one factor affecting housing prices and Michigan’s rules are similar to neighboring states. 

Benson, who has rolled out a housing policy platform, is calling for policies that encourage new homeowners, including a promise to “expand and modernize the Michigan Homestead Property Tax Credit to reflect today’s housing costs and inflation.” 

That would include raising the income eligibility limit for the program, she said, “so more working families, seniors, and fixed-income homeowners” can qualify.

She also called for banning “the sale of homes to private equity firms in their first 100 days on the market” and said she wants to give communities control over short-term rentals. 

Michigan recently banned large private investors buying single-family homes if they already own 100 or more in the state — though proponents acknowledge it’s less of an issue here than in other states. 

Short-term rental regulations, meanwhile, have historically stalled in the Legislature. 

Democrat Swanson was the only gubernatorial hopeful who responded to the Bridge questions by proposing to strengthen rights for renters, though Benson has included those provisions in her housing plan. 

Swanson also said he wants to improve housing stability for formerly incarcerated Michiganders. 

Diversification

The question: Michigan has long anchored its economic identity around the automobile, with one industry group estimating the mobility sector employs about 20% of all Michigan workers. But mobility employment continues to decline here as it grows in the US. 

What does Michigan need to do about its national place in mobility jobs, and how does diversifying the economy fit into that? Are there particular sectors or industries you would target for growth and why?

Candidates offered some stark contrasts here on how or if the government should play a role in diversifying the state’s economy. 

Benson and James both stressed the importance of the auto industry but offered examples of other industries they feel are ripe for growth in Michigan. 

Benson, a Democrat, pointed to improving infrastructure, lowering energy costs, environmental stewardship and internet access as tools for diversification, naming “life sciences, defense, semiconductors, clean energy and technology” as sectors she’d target.

“We already have world-class universities, skilled workers, abundant natural resources and a strong manufacturing base. Our job is to connect those strengths to new opportunities,” Benson said. 

James, a Republican, said he sees “major opportunities” for the state in “life sciences, shipbuilding, logistics and defense manufacturing.” 

Whitmer, too, has tried to woo the defense aerospace industry to Michigan with multiple trips to security conferences.

Fellow Republican Johnson, however, said the state government should play no part in picking companies or industries to support. 

“Our job should be creating the conditions that allow innovation and investment to flourish wherever opportunity exists,” he said, not “trying to predict which industries will succeed.”

Swanson, a Democrat, argued Michigan should spend more on workforce development to get more residents trained in the skilled trades. He called for increasing funding for the state Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity in order to bolster programs like Michigan Works!.

“Tax dollars allocated to job training programs pay dividends in eliminating delays and cost overruns for public works projects,” he said. “We need trades programs in our middle schools, high schools and post-secondary institutions.”

Population

The question: Michigan’s population has largely flatlined in the 21st century, dependent on domestic and international migration for growth, and a “silver tsunami” of retiring Michiganders is looming. How would you tackle Michigan’s aging crisis and what steps would you take to grow the state’s population?

As of 2024, one-third of Michigan’s population was over the age of 55. With Michigan’s current median age hovering around 40 years old, it already ranks as the 13th oldest state by age in the nation according to data presented to state lawmakers in May.

Whitmer had placed Michigan’s stagnating population as a policy priority of her second term, but lawmakers have not acted on many of the recommendations produced by her bipartisan population commission.

Among Democratic candidates, Benson turned to her affordability agenda to explain how she would grow Michigan’s population. 

“As governor, my focus will be on driving down costs and growing our economy — making Michigan among the most affordable states in the country — so our loved ones choose to stay and young people across the country come here to work and build a thriving career,” she said. 

Swanson, on the other hand, said he thinks “boosting Michigan’s population to replace those leaving the workforce begins and ends with our education policy,” pointing to his plan to prioritize early education and literacy, expand career planning and strengthen educator retention and attraction.

Among Republicans, James promised to bring back “faith, family and hard work” to Michigan. He pointed to Dylan Larkin as an example of Michigan’s troubles. The hockey player requested a trade from the beleaguered Detroit Red Wings to a more successful team according to a June report.

“When I am governor we are cutting the income tax, lowering energy prices, bringing Dylan (Larkin) home to Waterford and hanging a USA Hockey gold medal on the Gordie Howe Bridge,” James said.

Johnson again pointed to his income tax elimination plan as a panacea for Michigan’s population woes, calling it “tremendously simple.”

“The answer is straightforward: people move to opportunity,” Johnson said.

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