Whitmer Continues War on Businesses, Vetoes Bill to Forgive COVID Fines for First Offense

November 15, 2021

Lansing, Mich., November 15, 2021 – For well over a year, Gretchen Whitmer has waged war on small businesses with her suffocating economic policies. As the Governor’s unilateral rules were constantly changing, hundreds of Michigan businesses were issued fines from the Whitmer administration for not obeying all of her orders. State Representative and small business owner Tim Beson (R-Bay City) introduced HB 4501, common-sense legislation that would have forgiven fines for a first-time COVID rules violation. Staying true to form, Whitmer vetoed the bill last week, an insult to every struggling Michigan business that was negatively affected by the Governor for the past 20 months. The Detroit News reports:

“Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has vetoed a bill that would have forgiven Michigan businesses their first workplace safety violation related to COVID-19 and refunded companies that had already paid their COVID-related fines.”

The article states there have been more than 500 businesses that were issued fines from MIOSHA. State officials at MIOSHA have displayed questionable ethics, as it was revealed earlier this month that they were “burning” and “destroying” documents relating to COVID-19 fines. It remains unclear what the officials operating under Gretchen Whitmer were hiding. Still, the suspicious way investigators destroyed the documents gives businesses very little hope that MIOSHA is conducting their work in good faith.

“Gretchen Whitmer and MIOSHA have been more focused on hamstringing job creators than actually keeping Michigan safe,” said Eric Ventimiglia, Executive Director for Michigan Rising Action. Ventimiglia continued, “For a governor who has been caught violating her own rules on many occasions, Whitmer’s veto is a slap in the face to small businesses across the state. The people of Michigan are fed up with Gretchen Whitmer and her ‘rules for thee, not for me’ mentality.”