Duggan Says Whitmer ‘Quickly Becoming the Auto Jobs Governor’
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan spoke with WDET’s Jake Neher after Whitmer’s State of the State speech, commending the governor as a “terrific partner.”
Gov. Whitmer is “quickly becoming the auto jobs governor,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said Wednesday night on the floor of the state House after Whitmer’s second State of the State speech.
Gov. Whitmer has “been a terrific partner on every one of these auto plant deals.” – Mayor Mike Duggan
The governor highlighted a number of issues affecting the city of Detroit in her speech. She touted her deal with Republican lawmakers to overhaul auto insurance in Michigan, and she announced an effort to undercut Michigan’s third grade reading law, which requires schools to hold back many third graders who don’t pass the state’s reading test.
But it’s Whitmer’s work on auto manufacturing that got the biggest praise from Duggan.
Click on the audio player above to hear Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s reaction to Gov. Whitmer’s second State of the State speech.
General Motors announced this week that it is investing $2.2 billion in its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant. GM says the plant will build electric and self-driving cars, and will provide more than 2,000 jobs.
“It’s been plant after plant,” Duggan told WDET’s Jake Neher. “And we’ve got more supplier plants coming now that GM is going to put more than $2 billion into an assembly plant in Detroit. So she’s been a terrific partner on every one of these auto plant deals.”
Duggan says he’s also happy that the governor announced a plan to undercut Michigan’s third grade reading law which would require schools to hold back third graders who fail the state’s reading test. It is set to take effect later this year.
The mayor says the law is “non-functional statewide.”
“The problem isn’t to threaten kids when they’re eight with being held back,” he says. “We need to start when they’re four, and they’re five and six, and give them quality education.”
Duggan also spoke with Neher about the state’s new auto insurance law and about the city’s demolitions program.
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