From Michigan Advance: Voters being misled about the cause of Michigan’s economic decline

The following article originally appeared at https://michiganadvance.com/2026/03/09/voters-being-misled-about-the-cause-of-michigans-economic-decline/.

Michigan’s economic standing been shrinking for decades, but its 10 million residents are mostly in the dark about the state’s precipitous decline.

A recent statewide poll conducted for the Detroit Regional Chamber found voters think Michigan fares about average compared to other states in education, reading, income and jobs. But the stark reality is that the state is near the bottom in almost every one of those categories.

In one example, survey respondents thought Michigan’s unemployment rate ranked just under 29^th when the actual rank was 45^th.

“Michigan voters have no clue how we stack up against the other states,” said Glengariff Group President Richard Czuba, who conducted the poll.

Why is that? It’s not like the data chronicling the fall of Michigan’s economic competitiveness have been kept secret. Groups such as think tank Michigan Future Inc., Business Leaders for Michigan and the Detroit chamber have issued numerous reports on Michigan’s waning fortunes. Those studies have received wide media coverage over the years.

Most disturbing is a new study by the Urban Institute that found Michigan trailed every state except West Virginia in median household income growth over the past 50 years.

Michigan Future President Lou Glazer and University of Michigan economist Don Grimes have been reporting on Michigan’s failure to embrace the growing knowledge economy since the early 1990s, with scant interest from Lansing policymakers.

“What’s puzzled me and Don is, why have there been no alarm bells?” Glazer told me. “I still don’t know the answer to that.”

Czuba has some thoughts.

Many voters are so busy with the demands of daily life that they don’t consider how well people in other states might be doing, he said.

“They don’t think about it,” Czuba said. “If nobody is telling them there’s a huge problem, they think they’re average.”

A lot of voters might not even be reading or hearing about Michigan’s decline if one question in the chamber’s poll is any indication. Opposition to the explosion of large-scale data center proposals in the state has been a huge issue. But the poll found that more than 40% of voters haven’t seen or heard anything about them.

Czuba puts much of the blame on elected officials who he said are not telling voters the truth about the root cause of Michigan’s fall from being one of the wealthiest states in the country to one of the poorest.

The state is resting on its manufacturing heritage while most other wealthier states have made the transition to a technology rich, knowledge economy, he said.

“Higher incomes come from high-tech, high-education jobs,” Czuba told me. “Michigan voters don’t believe it. They think that wealth is built from manufacturing. Both sides (Republicans and Democrats) are telling voters our future is in manufacturing.”

Yet Michigan has lost nearly 300,000 factory jobs over the past 25 years, and they pay about 20% less than the average of all jobs in the state.

“Michigan is clinging to where it was in the past without acknowledging that the world has changed around it,” Czuba said.

Let’s be clear: manufacturing is an important component of Michigan’s economy. But making it the centerpiece of the state’s economic development policy, which Lansing has done for the past 30 years as manufacturing jobs have disappeared, is not going to make Michigan a more prosperous state.

Michigan has a great opportunity to steer a new course later this year as voters elect a new governor. Those voters need to press the candidates seeking to lead Michigan on how they’re going to make the state richer.

“All the candidates need to be asked: what is their course to change the trajectory in Michigan?” Czuba said.

Unfortunately, none of them are talking about boosting incomes. They are instead focused on increasing affordability by promoting tax cuts and offering plans to bring down housing, grocery and other prices.

Most the Republican gubernatorial candidates want to kill the state income tax to promote economic growth. But, as Czuba points out, tax rates are a poor indicator of a state’s prosperity.

“I think the question to ask of candidates is: why have Democratic- and Republican-controlled states blown by Michigan? It’s not just about taxes,” he said. “Both have higher incomes than Michigan.”

Czuba and others say the key to a more prosperous Michigan is developing a highly educated workforce.

“The reality is there is no such thing as a prosperous region that is also not highly educated,” the Detroit chamber wrote in an analysis of its poll findings.

Many high school students are choosing not to attend four-year universities because of the cost. It’s not cheap, but Czuba said parents and students think the cost of a college education is far higher than the actual price.

Universities and state government can do a much better job of informing parents and students about college costs and the financial resources available to finance a degree path, he said.

Ultimately, it’s up to voters to demand that candidates for governor and the legislature enact policies that promote a more prosperous Michigan, if that’s what they want.

Candidates’ “hair isn’t on fire because voters’ hair isn’t on fire,” Czuba said. If voters are content with Michigan’s economic slide, “then nothing is going to change.”