Whitmer asks for $10M handout to grow population

Michigan’s 2026 budget, a record $83.5 billion, contains a recommendation from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for $10 million “to retain and attract talent with strategic pilots and public engagement efforts that aim to support population growth trends statewide.”

Michigan Capitol Confidential filed a records request with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation as well as the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, asking for documents that might justify the $10 million allocation.

The request yielded no results.

In 2018, the year Whitmer was elected, Michigan’s budget was $56.8 billion. Her proposed 2026 state budget is $83.5 billion, or 47% higher.

Michigan could have spent less money on ways to increase its population, James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told CapCon in an email.

“The state could have hired an economist or a demographer for a lot less than $10 million to show them what policies are effective at growing state population,” he wrote.