The leadership of the Small Business Association of Michigan is encouraged by what they’re hearing from Governor Gretchen Whitmer concerning how her administration has responded to COVID-19 and her plans to safely reopen the economy. In joining SBAM for their daily briefing on Tuesday, Whitmer cautioned the recovery and reopening will be slow.
“May 1st, it’s not going to be like it was on March 9th, the day before we had our first two positive cases,” said Whitmer. “It’s not that we’re all going to jump right back in. We’re going to have to ramp up and be nimble enough to see what’s working where the numbers look good and say ‘let’s take the next step.’”
SBAM president and former Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley says Whitmer’s comments bode well for the coming weeks.
“We heard her directly say that small businesses know how to run their businesses, that’s what the governor said,” noted Calley. “That was in the context, though, of not being overly prescriptive in what you need to do. So in other words, you’ll be looking for outcomes, and there will be a lot of different ways these outcomes can be achieved.”
Whitmer added that “if COVID cases start to ratchet up, we might have to be able to pull back from one step to the next. I share that with you because I don’t want to create an expectation that the whole world’s going to be able to resume as we were, because that’s not going to be the case for quite awhile.”
The governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order expires at the end of the month, and she is saying changes will be made soon in conjunction with actions in other Midwestern states to start reopening businesses that can operate safely.
