August 28, 2006
LANSING – Governor Jennifer M Granholm and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, along with members of their respective Cabinets, met this morning to discuss the governor’s Jobs Today, Jobs Tomorrow comprehensive economic plan and the mayor’s Next Detroit plan, which are beginning to pay dividends for citizens in Detroit.
Granholm’s comprehensive economic plan includes an emphasis on growing jobs today and tomorrow and has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars to make infrastructure improvements around the state and create jobs in the process.
“We have to invest in our people and in our state to be the economic powerhouse that we were in the 20th century,” Granholm said today. “We are working our economic plan everyday, and it’s beginning to pay dividends. A report released last week by the W.E. Upjohn Institute confirmed my plan is the right plan for Michigan.”
A key component of the governor’s economic plan is focused on improving urban areas, including infrastructure improvements like roads, bridges, and nursing homes, investing in education for all children, and making health care more affordable and accessible.
Kilpatrick noted that his Next Detroit plan is working in tandem with Jobs Today, Jobs Tomorrow by accelerating business attraction and growing Detroit’s creative business industry, the city’s population, and its mid-town research corridor.
“The governor’s economic plan will be instrumental in helping us fully implement the growth and jobs strategy of Next Detroit,” Kilpatrick said. “Just as the governor is focused on investing in people and making Michigan an economic powerhouse, so, too, are we focused on investing in people and growing the next Detroit so it can be a strong economic engine for southeast Michigan.”
Since taking office in 2003, Granholm has partnered with Detroit to create jobs, strengthen schools, protect families, and improve access to affordable health care. That partnership has led to:
• saving 1,000 good-paying jobs in Detroit by securing a $50 million investment to ensure that the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) would continue to provide critical health services for city residents;
• protecting 450 Detroit jobs at American Axle that would have been shipped to Mexico, by providing the company with an SBT credit of more than $7.7 million and another $650,000 to provide job training to 650 Detroit American Axle workers in 2006;
• increased contracting for minority vendors, including Detroit contractors under the Buy Michigan First program;
• $15 million for Wayne State University’s Engineering Development Center;
• more than $27 million in critical job training projects for Detroit residents;
• the investment of more than $402 million in Detroit to fix dangerous bridges, roads, and highways and accelerating more than $14 million in road projects, including $10 million to repair M-10 from I-696 to downtown Detroit;
• eleven Family Resource Centers in Detroit middle and elementary schools to engage parents in promoting their children’s school attendance and academic performance;
• signing into law the Neighborhood Enterprise Zone (NEZ) legislation to promote home ownership in Detroit;
• vetoing legislation that would have altered control of the Detroit Water Board, prevented Detroit from raising money to match federal transit investments, and that would have cost Detroit Public Schools $15 million;
• funding for Project Safe Neighborhoods to reduce gun crime in targeted areas of the city of Detroit; and,
• a call for a 20 percent reduction in auto insurance rates and new initiative to make home and auto insurance more affordable for good drivers living in urban areas by create purchasing groups that can negotiate directly with insurance companies for lower rates.
“It is no secret that all of Michigan is impacted by changes in the global marketplace. The challenges to our traditional manufacturing economy have hurt our state particularly hard, including our urban areas,” Granholm said. “Our plan to create jobs and transform the entire state’s economy includes transforming our cities into cities of promise that are inviting, thriving, and prosperous places to live and work.”
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