One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan businesses weary of government overreach

(The Center Square) –One year after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Michiganders are weary of overreaching government, business groups say.

In a phone interview with The Center Square, Michigan Chamber President & CEO Rich Studley said Michigan government has been in an “unprecedented” situation for the past 365 days in which the government changed from checked powers to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issuing nearly 200 executive orders suspending, revising, and changing major public policy.

Lawmakers in both parties have been “sent to the locker room,” replaced by almost 200 “arbitrary, vague, and constantly changing” executive orders, Studley said, in which the governor attempted to “micromanage the daily lives of 10 million Michiganders.”

One order criminalized operating a motorboat because of COVID-19, which spreads easily in closed-spaces. The same order declared stores over 50,000 feet can’t sell gardening supplies because it’s not COVID-safe, but smaller stores could.

More than 2,680 Detroiters were to be charged with misdemeanors under Whitmer’s executive orders until the city prosecutors dropped the charges months later.

Whitmer chose which businesses thrived as “essential” and died as industries were shuttered for up to eight months, Studley explained. While Michiganders could toss money at a strip club, he said, they couldn’t go bowling.

Regarding the hospitality industry, it feels like they keep “getting kicked in the teeth,” according to Scott Ellis, the executive director of the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association (MLBA). In 2020, roughly 3,000 Michigan restaurants permanently closed, Ellis told The Center Square in a phone interview.

The worst part of the last year for restaurants is a mix of fractured communication and a divide between intended and actual policy effect, Ellis said. While restaurants have always kept safety in mind, he said industry leaders were very open to sitting down and talking to government agencies instead of being told how it was going to work.

Ellis said Whitmer’s Tuesday veto of $405 million in business relief was one of many examples of business owners being caught in political crossfire.

Early on, Ellis said, the hospitality industry supported Whitmer’s COVID-19 response, but a year later, that support is waning as policy seems to be based on perceived risk instead of actual risk.

“I think people are so frustrated that politics have become so partisan that there doesn’t appear to be negotiations anymore — it’s flat out to throw bombs at each other— and I think business owners are just over it,” Ellis said.

Both Studley and Ellis credited Whitmer for her initial response, but agreed ongoing government interference is no longer needed as all COVID-19 data including hospitalization and death rates has continually declined.

“It’s time to return to our constitutional system of checks and balances,” Studley said. “The governor’s own facts and figures suggest we’ve turned the corner. It’s time to relinquish these powers and restoring liberty and freedom.”

Studley launched the Reopen Michigan Safely campaign to get businesses back in their workplaces before any other economic harm transpires.

“The vast majority of Michiganders would rather have a paycheck to support their families,” Studley said. “The vast majority of businesses that are closed or struggling to survive would rather be allowed to operate safely rather than a government loan or grant.”

“Crushing companies under an incredible burden of state regulation and then offering them a government or loan or grant so that they can be on life support indefinitely isn’t a permanent solution,” Studley said.

Ellis said businesses going bankrupt have severe economic and social ramifications.

“It’s not just profit. It’s literally survival,” Ellis said. “When someone closes a storefront, it’s not just a ‘closed’ sign. It means all the employees don’t have a job. The community now loses a tax base, a baseball sponsor, a get-together spot. And that owner, if that person has loans, has personal guarantees for a house or car on the line for being lost.”

About 15,699 Michiganders have died of COVID-19 since last March.

“When this is done, I hope and pray the community will remember this,” Ellis said. “It’s going to take many years for us to come back.”

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