The goal of the biennial conference is to bring together Michigan business and community leaders to discuss current state policy and create a business barometer on what is working for Michigan business and what policies need fixing.
“We’ve had a lot of policies that have been put in place that actually bring us backwards.”
John Kennedy is Chair of the Forum. He says the small business environment in West Michigan is good, but there’s room for improvement statewide.
“What we want to do is try to, through education, hopefully make sure that people are aware of what those policies are and how they impact people.”
According to January 2024 report from Michigan Future, Inc., a non-partisan non-profit that provides state economy analysis, the amount of money Michiganders earned during the last 23 years increased by only 24.2%, compared to the national average, which climbed by 42.1% during the same period.
“Unfortunately, we’re headed in the wrong direction.”
Jase Bolger is a policy advisor for the forum.
“We can talk about a lot of different statistics but if you just look at population, unfortunately, again we’re losing population. We had reversed that trend. And when people are leaving the state, it’s not because the state is doing well, it’s because there’s better opportunities elsewhere.”
