State Representative Pauline Wendzel is hopeful the governor’s State of the State address on Wednesday night is the start of an improvement in relations between the Democratic governor and the Republican Legislature. After the speech, Wendzel told WSJM News it’s been an unusual twelve months, and she hopes the governor was sincere about working together.
“I thought the speech was thoughtful, but for a long time now she’s been talking the talk, so to speak, but we’ll see if she walks the walk,” Wendzel said. “We’ve wanted to work with her on so many issues, and she’s fought us the entire way. So I’m hoping the speech is the beginning of a new chapter because that’s what she was saying in her speech, that she wants to work with us to get the state back open and that’s what we’ve wanted all along. I’m hoping she sticks to that.”
Wendzel said the speech was short on details, and she couldn’t help notice it was only about a half hour.
State Senator Kim LaSata, meanwhile, says she’s “hopeful that Governor Whitmer is sincere when she says that she wants to partner with lawmakers on a plan to help our state recover after a year of incredible losses. However, we have heard her say this before and actions speak louder than words.” LaSata also notes Senate Republicans this week unveiled their own list of legislative priorities.
State Senator Aric Nesbitt of Lawton issued a statement, saying this was the third State of the State in which Whitmer “has outlined her plans and called on the Legislature to work with her, but her actions in recent years have shown she feels otherwise. She chose to go it alone on roads, she chose to redo the state budget as she saw fit and she has chosen to take on this pandemic alone.” Nesbitt adds actions matter more than words.
