JUNE 23 • 2022 | 31
Chamber sponsors programs to assist
underserved communities in K-12
schools, to help students achieve success
in two-year and four-year degree
programs and also to attract highly
skilled workers to relocate to Michigan.
Baruah notes that just over 40% of
Michigan’s adult population hold college
degrees, lagging behind the nearly
50% in other states. The Chamber
sets 60% as a goal, and Baruah lauds
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for
adopting the 60% goal. To achieve that
goal, Baruah believes, Michigan will
have to overcome racial disparities in
education.
Lester suggests we need to increase
teachers’ salaries and improve their
working conditions. “We need to attract
talent, and pay them, and treat them as
important.”
How important is the goal of
improving education in Michigan? Jeff
Donofrio says, “It’s key. No state can be
successful without a best-in-class K-12
and post-secondary education system.”
2. Population
Baruah points to a serious economic
problem in Michigan: “We had a big
decline in population.”
Population decline leads to
labor shortages and other
bad consequences.
As Tobocman observes,
“The Midwest faces dire
demographics — aging
population, lower birth
rates, lower numbers
graduating high school. The
implications are huge and
profound. Think of how
disinvestment and flight devastated the
local economy in Detroit.”
Exacerbating the problem, as
Donofrio notes, “Michigan has a lower
percentage of people in the labor force
compared to Great Lakes states (on
average), even when comparing people
with the same level of education.”
It does not look like the solution
can come from natural growth. Krauss
laughingly challenges audiences, “How
would you feel about having five more
children?”
From where can demographic growth
come? Tobocman says, “Immigration
accounts for all of the population
growth in Michigan over the last 25
years. Without immigration, we would
not have grown our population since
2000.”
Donofrio agrees: “We firmly believe
Michigan must work harder to increase
migration and immigration to the state,
which would help us bring in more
talent to our labor force.”
Krauss observes that “the
past few years of opposition
to immigration was just
exacerbating the problem.”
Baruah would welcome
increased immigration,
especially from high-skilled,
educated foreigners. He
lists leading companies
that “are looking for new
high-tech talented people.
And frankly, we just don’t
produce enough in the
United States.”
Krauss, though, says we need all sorts
of immigrants. “We need both. It is not
either/or; it is both/and.”
3. Infrastructure
Baruah notes that the Detroit Regional
Council has been trying to bring
stakeholders together to upgrade mass
transit. “There really aren’t prosperous
cities across the country, or frankly,
even across the world, that don’t have a
robust regional public transit system,”
he said.
We need sustained attention to other
infrastructure needs: the classic repair
challenges of aging dams, bridges, roads
and water treatment facilities, along
with new challenges of internet access.
4. Competition for Business Incentives
When businesses decide where to
locate new projects, they often ask
governments to compete in offering
incentives such as tax breaks and
relaxed regulation. “In a perfect
world,” according to Krauss, “none of
us would offer incentives.” But state
and municipal governments do offer
incentives to businesses to encourage
them to build projects, and so Michigan
must compete. She says, “If we take that
[incentives] off the table,
and the competition still
offers incentives …” She
does not need to finish the
sentence.
Donofrio explains the
difficult balance: “While we
don’t want to win a project
only because of incentives,
we also don’t want to lose
projects because we weren’t
willing to offer them.”
Because we do need to
offer balanced incentives, Donofrio
praises “the recent bipartisan economic
Sandy
Baruah,
president
and CEO of
the Detroit
Regional
Chamber
Maureen
Krauss,
president
and CEO of
the Detroit
Regional
Partnership
Jeff
Donofrio,
president
and CEO,
Business
Leaders for
Michigan.
continued on page 33