Tim Skubick

Remember back to your elementary school days when you finished one grade, had the summer off, and then the challenge was to remember the lessons you covered in the previous grade and transfer that to the new grade. They call it learning.

So as they wrote into the history books the legislative year 2025, what, if anything, did the governor and the divided legislature learn that they might carry forward to 2026 which promises to be one of the more challenging years in recent memory.

How’s so?

The dark cloud that will hang over ever moment is the fact that most everybody is running for re-election minus the governor, secretary of state and the state attorney general all of whom are term-limited and looking for something else to do. The SOS, Jocelyn Benson, is running for governor and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and A.G. Dana Nessel are pondering what their next move is.

Perhaps you wonder why the doom and gloom “dark cloud” label given that one is suppose to be upbeat and hoping for good vibrations, even though Brian Wilson is dead, at this early point of the new year?

That’s because there is a very real threat that winning re-election may prevail over doing the will of the citizens. Or to be blunt, will lots of folks in this town ask this question first: How does this issue impact me? When it should be how does this help the voters who sent me here in the first place?

Having warned you in advance to be looking for this self-preservation attitude, here are some of the things learned in the past year.

(1) A legislature with the Democrats running the senate and the Republicans running the house did manage to work on a bi-partisan basis to get the budget done. Never mind that many in this town believe that all the chatter starting last March that the government would be shut down was fostered by both sides to gain leverage in the budget talks. In other words they played politics and for a long time did not play nice until the clock struck midnight on October first. For two hours, there was a government shutdown but nobody at home noticed it.

(2) Lesson two. Gov. Whitmer and House GOP Speaker Matt Hall found a way to cooperate. At times they chucked the time-honored “quadrant system” where by the three other legislative leaders met with the governor and speaker to iron out there differences. More often than not last year, Sen. Democratic leader Winnie Brinks,Senate GOP leader Aric Nesbitt, and House Democratic leader Ranjeev Puri were left in the locker room while the Whitmer/Hall axis worked to get stuff done. But will the two, in this highly charged “we want to win” environment, forget the lesson learned and instead battle each other over key issues with good policy being damned in favor of partisan wins.

Property tax relief may be the first test of which way this puppy will go.

Both sides know that a bunch of homeowners are being crunched by high property taxes. It’s so bad that a petition drive is out there to basically abolish a big piece of the tax leaving the leftovers to run local governments. Mr. Hall does not want to go that far. So far the governor hasn’t said squat about what she would do, if anything. But it’s a popular issue and both parties could benefit with voters if they cooperate and deliver relief. There are not enough tea leaves at this read to predict which way this thing will go.

(3) Lesson three. A consensus was reached by both conservative R’s and progressive D’s that the state’s game plan for keeping and bringing in more jobs was not working. The chorus of “corporate welfare” coupled with “enough already with picking winners and losers” reverberated through the legislative halls. The governor, the speaker and the senate democratic leaders signed a pledge to revamp the system before the end of the year.

Promise made but not kept. Over the years, this is nothing new in the legislative process as promises are “revised and extended” into the new year but while folks agree on some key elements, no bill signing ceremonies are scheduled yet. But progress was made and since they proved in 2025 they can do stuff together, they get the benefit of the doubt now and up until the evidence suggests otherwise.

Which brings us finally to the governor.

With the flipping of the calendar to January first, she begins a series of lasts.

Her last state of the state. Her last state budget. Her last campaign not to save her own heck but the necks all the democrats around her who know she carries a wallop with voters with her 50% plus approval rating. She’ll find time to help them. This month now begins the likelihood of a series of good-byes. Members of her cabinet are watching the clock, too. In less than a year they will be unemployed and if the past is any hint of the future, some of these loyal folks will keep one eye on their job and the other on their resume. And if need be, some will bail out early if the right job offer comes along. Her cabinet won’t be bare by the end of the year but many shelves will be empty. With each good-bye a host of memories go with the worker bees who did what they could to help her over the last eight years.

But knowing her, she will briskly and firmly brush aside all this lame duck stuff that the media will play for all it’s worth. And despite the end being in sight, she’ll claim she will double her refocus on polishing up her legacy maybe while she looks for the next gig, too.

Buckle up boys and girls. It’s going to be year to remember.