Feb. 27, 2026 | This Week in Government: A Reflective Whitmer Offers Proposals on Housing, Medical Debt in Her Final State of the State

Pictured: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at the 2025 Mackinac Policy Conference

More than 30 years after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer started her public service career as a House intern and 25 years after first setting foot on the House floor as a freshman state representative, she mixed emotional reflection, humor, legacy building, and a limited policy agenda during her final State of the State address Wednesday.

The emotional center of the speech came toward the end as Whitmer, with 10 months remaining as governor, recounted how she first found her way to the Capitol. The other emotional beat was when she urged residents to work together.

“I spent two and a half decades working in this building. As a student at Michigan State, just at the other end of the now freshly paved Michigan Avenue, my beloved father,” Whitmer said, her voice catching at the mention of her father, Dick Whitmer, who died a month ago, before continuing, “wisely encouraged me to learn about state government and apply for an internship at the Capitol. He saw something in me before I saw it in myself. Soon, I landed my first full time job as a staffer. … I got to work here at a unique moment. We had a tie, 55 Republicans and 55 Democrats. They shared power and still got a lot done. And that early experience stayed with me and shapes the way that I lead.”

Several in the House chamber pulled out tissues to wipe their eyes as the governor thanked people for sending their condolences and again struggled to speak when discussing how hard it was to lose her father.

“I was definitely teary by the end of it, and the governor centering it around, really her life in public service, and what it meant for her parents, losing her dad, her mom, and her kids,” Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said. “I mean, that’s why we do it all. So, I thought it was the perfect end to her time in office and hopefully sets the tone for us.”

Whitmer has governed during turbulent times. The COVID-19 pandemic. Racial unrest. The Midland floods. The disputed 2020 election. The plot to attack her Elk Rapids summer home and kidnap her with discussions among the plotters of killing her. Rising political toxicity.

The governor asked residents not to give in to anger and frustration.

“These forces – economic uncertainty, political division, and toxic algorithms – work in a vicious cycle to try and tell us that empathy is weakness, that kindness is gullibility, that sincerity is for suckers. But that’s wrong,” she said. “We’re all searching for a way forward, and the answer has been in front of us the whole time. It’s us. No matter what comes our way, we will always have a way through it because we will always have each other.”

The speech clocked in at 40 minutes.

There were 15 bipartisan standing ovations. Everyone stood and clapped for mentions of Michigan’s Olympic success, the governor’s call to streamline zoning, and her comments about medical debt. Democrats cheered loudest for the governor’s calls to protect Medicaid and recounting key laws and budgeting signed on her watch. Republicans cheered for the governor’s mentions of President Donald Trump and House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township.

Republicans were sharply critical of the governor afterward in statements and interviews, but in terms of the reaction in the chamber, it was one of the better receptions she has received from the GOP side of the aisle.

One topic Whitmer omitted: property taxes. Hall has called for an eye-popping $5 billion reduction in property taxes.

It wasn’t all heavy. The governor went off-script to joke she kept a thank you to her husband, Marc Mallory, even though he was home sick with the flu because she thought it was funny to mention him even though he wasn’t there, drawing laughs.

Whitmer again ad-libbed when she touted the changes to the earned sick time law last year and high-fived Hall and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, laughing throughout.

Overall, it wasn’t a flashy speech.

It avoided some of the techniques Whitmer used in the past like pop culture references, and instead emphasizing the points of her record she sees as her legacy. The governor remained focused on three key issues her office leaked ahead of Wednesday night. Housing and health care centered around affordability, and the governor took the opportunity to boast the state’s improvements while also acknowledging concerns.

“People are nervous about the national economy. While your paycheck may have grown, the cost of everything else has too,” she said. “Many middle class families tread water, struggle to pay the bills, find good jobs, and get ahead. If you’re young, it can be hard to find a job that pays well or a home you can afford.”

The governor took multiple jabs at the tariffs President Donald Trump has implemented, many of which were recently shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court, calling on Congress and Trump “to work out a more strategic trade policy.”

Overall, though, Whitmer said Michigan must stay focused on Michigan. Whitmer said amid “endless division,” the state can be different.

“Despite these national challenges, Michiganders can show the way forward. We can all show the rest of the country how we work together to get things done,” she said. “We can remind people to carry themselves with an underdog spirit and a championship swagger, like we do. That’s what being a Michigander is all about. Taking pride in who you are, what you do, and what you value.”

The Agenda

Whitmer did not offer a ton of new proposals in her speech, but there were a couple highlights.

The governor called for a new state tax credit to help build affordable housing to stack on top of the existing federal credit, saying it would mean building thousands more homes annually and noting Michigan is the only state in the region without one.

She also appeared to endorse the legislation Rep. Joe Aragona, R-Clinton Township, and Rep. Kristian Grant, D-Grand Rapids, are pursuing to limit what local governments can do on zoning when it comes to new housing (HB 5529, HB 5530, HB 5531, HB 5532). The governor praised Aragona, Grant, and other legislators for their work on housing, shortly after calling the Legislature to “streamline zoning.”

Local governments have mounted a counterattack on the legislation, arguing it will preempt key local control powers.

Whitmer also urged lawmakers to “demolish nonsensical construction requirements,” suggesting improvements to building codes on items like making it easier to build in-law suites, duplexes and modernizing lot sizes, setback rules, and parking requirements.

Whitmer’s other significant proposal was on medical debt, an issue that’s gained bipartisan traction in the Senate where Sen. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, and Sen. Jonathan Lindsey, R-Coldwater, have legislation (SB 701, SB 702) that would stop aggressive medical debt collection practices.

The governor called for capping interest rates on medical debt, barring medical debt from showing up in credit reports, requiring hospitals to set up financial assistance programs, and banning liens or foreclosures because of Medical debt.

“In Michigan, we believe that being sick or getting hurt shouldn’t also mean going broke,” she said.

The governor offered her first public comments about her call in the budget for $800 million in tax increases to avoid major cuts in Medicaid.

“In my executive recommendation, I proposed a significant investment to stabilize Medicaid funding,” she said. “If we include this throughout the budget process, we can protect benefits and maintain coverage for eligible Michiganders.”

Legacy items

Governors in their last speech always seek to underline the actions they most want remembered. Whitmer was no exception.

Whitmer spoke extensively about spending increases she has achieved for schools, allowing for more teacher training, more tutors, significant investment in student mental health and upgraded infrastructure, tuition-free preschool, and free school meals.

Republicans continue to hammer at the state’s poor reading scores among third-graders and have faulted the governor for signing the repeal of the third grade reading law her predecessor, Gov. Rick Snyder, signed. Whitmer again pitched her spending proposals in her new budget recommendation to boost literacy – and suggested improving literacy will take time.

“We’ve already seen remarkable progress in states doing the same things I’ve covered tonight. These so-called ‘miracles’ have been taking place in red, blue and purple states who are climbing the ranks or maintaining their already strong positions,” she said in a reference to Republican mentions of the “Mississippi Miracle” on reading. “But these weren’t miracles. They were marathons – the result of years of hard work and commitment to the plan.”

Whitmer took a victory lap on health care, touting the codification of the rights in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into state law.

The governor got a big cheer from Democrats when she mentioned rolling back the tax on pension income that Snyder signed in 2011 and the quintupling of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Republicans joined the cheers when she mentioned the exemption enacted last year on tips and overtime from the state income tax.

She touted progress on Democratic priorities like gun control and expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to the LBGTQ community.

Whitmer hailed the road funding agreement she signed last year, thanking Hall specifically for working with her on the signature issue of her first campaign for governor in 2018.

“We’ve had some of the busiest construction seasons in Michigan history and more are coming,” she said. “There’s still a lot of work to do. So when you see those orange barrels just know, I’m sorry and you’re welcome!”

As has been the governor’s custom of late, she avoided any criticism of President Donald Trump, but she seemed to have him in mind when she said the new Gordie Howe International Bridge “will open” about two weeks after Trump said he wouldn’t allow it to happen.

The governor closed the speech with the line “Big Gretch out!” – an homage to the nickname bestowed upon her during the pandemic by GmacCash. But in her final 10 months, the governor said she would beginning a “G-S-D Tour” during the remainder of the year to both “lift up these wins” and listen to residents (presumably a saltier version of “get stuff done”).

“I’ve been to all 83 counties many times. I’ve met Michiganders on the frontline of every problem,” she said. “Even as we’ve dealt with a lot of darkness over the past seven years, I’ve been overwhelmed by the light that I’ve seen in my fellow Michiganders. Our state is full of good, honest, hard-working people who care deeply about their families and want to make their communities better. That’s why I’m optimistic about Michigan’s future. It’s the gritty, can-do attitude that defines our state’s character. The ordinary acts of kindness we practice, every day. It’s Republicans, Democrats, and independents who put politics aside to solve problems. That’s what Michigan is about.”

House Speaker Matt Hall is proposing a 6% sales tax on services that would generate $4.73 billion in state revenue.

The tax plan, which was first reported by WLNS, would only apply to select services, specifically those that are typically used by higher-income residents and tourists.

Examples of taxable services Hall laid out include limousines, country club memberships, private jets, marinas, tourist services, travel agencies, skiing, golf, artificial intelligence services, newspaper publishing, performing arts, environmental consulting, and political ads.

Not all services would be taxed. Hall told WLNS that nail salons, barbers, landscaping, health care services, car repairs, child care, veterinary services, dry cleaning, and streaming services would be exempt. When confirming the plan to Gongwer News Service, Jeff Wiggins, Hall’s press secretary, said that legal services would also be exempt.

The idea, Hall told WLNS, is that most working families would not pay the new tax, and taxes on tourism-related activities would be partially paid by out-of-state visitors.

When the tax on services is taken together with the approximately $5 billion in property tax cuts Hall suggested during a press conference last week – which included eliminating the personal property tax, the 6-mill state education tax, the real estate transfer tax, and the pop-up tax, which is when residential property is reassessed upon its sale, removing the inflationary cap on tax increases for the prior owner – the result is a $270 million tax cut. As part of his property tax proposal, Hall said the budgets of local governments and schools would be backfilled.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Sen. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, have both proposed more modest property tax cuts using the Homestead Property Tax Credit.

In 2007, Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed a 2-cent sales tax on services. Eventually, this morphed into applying the 6% sales tax on goods to a select group of services, but not all of them. Granholm signed the services tax into law, but a public backlash led to its repeal in favor of a business tax surcharge, which was repealed during the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder.

That services, unlike goods, are not subject to the sales tax has long been identified as a loophole or questionable tax policy, depending on who is analyzing it. In 2007, it was the Republicans who led the charge to try to stop it.

Hall’s sales tax proposal was unveiled on the eve of Whitmer’s final State of the State address. A proposal of this magnitude may prove particularly difficult in Whitmer’s final year with a divided Legislature during an election year where majorities in the House and Senate are at stake.

Literacy, housing, and health care. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer clearly laid out her top three priorities for her final year in office during her State of the State address Wednesday night.

Following the speech, legislative Democrats, though uncertain about how to achieve progress during divided government, were on board with the governor’s proposals to improve literacy, make housing more affordable, and cut medical debt. Many also said they were optimistic there might be common ground for meaningful policy work between the left and the right sides of the aisle.

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II said that Whitmer’s address was an articulation of what Democratic values are.

“Every Michigan family needs (education, housing and health care) that have felt like they’ve been out of reach,” he said. “This is about making a difference for people.”

Gilchrist said he was confident that the Legislature would be able to achieve the governor’s policy goals, despite being in divided government during an election year.

“There’s a significant chance,” he said. “I think there’s going to be opportunity this year to do things that I hope surprise people, and we should get it done on time.”

Gilchrist said he’d like to see budget conversations begin in earnest now.

“This is the beginning of negotiation season, so I hope it means that people are ready to get to the table right now so we can get this wrapped up and save people money.”

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, also said the governor was focused on the right issues.

“It really speaks to the urgency about affordability,” she said. “We need to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to help people afford living a decent quality of life.”

Still, it will be a difficult year to navigate with respect to the budget, Brinks said.

“We need to make sure that we’re being very thoughtful,” she said. “There are certainly ways that we can find efficiencies. I’m open to that.”

The proper approach will not to be “take a hatchet” to the state budget, Brinks said, referencing House Republicans’ desire to make significant cuts to the budget in the name of “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

“It doesn’t help us have a really productive conversation,” she said. “There’s a lot of big ideas out there, which make for great headlines, if that’s what (House Speaker Matt Hall) is interested in, but there are no details about exactly what that looks like and where do those dollars come from. So, we hear him talking about billions of dollars in cuts. That means things that he’s taking away from Michiganders, and I’d like to know the details about that.”

Brinks said she is always hopeful for bipartisan effort to get things done.

“We’ve heard some indication from House Republicans that they are interested in, certainly housing costs, so we’ll see,” she said. “We’ll find things that we can do together, and hopefully with the governor’s leadership, Speaker Hall will come around to some of her ideas, and we’ll be able to get some of that stuff done.”

Everything the governor mentioned in her speech could be possible, Rep. Alabas Farhat, D-Dearborn said, if lawmakers have the political courage to do it.

“For me and my colleagues … we’re willing to tackle these issues head on,” he said. “Whether it be raising revenue to make sure that we can afford to continue having Medicaid that people in our state rely on, whether it is ensuring that we are advancing initiatives like the science of reading. These are the things that House Democrats and Democrats have pushed for a long time and a lot of these are building off the accomplishments of the trifecta just two years ago.”

The three priorities laid out by the governor are problems that need to be taken on now, Farhat said. He highlighted medical debt as a particularly important issue.

“These are initiatives that we can work together on,” he said. “They’re common sense, and they shouldn’t be partisan. They shouldn’t be ones where we are finger pointing at each other, especially when people across our state are screaming at these outrageous health care costs.”

Rep. Kristian Grant, D-Grand Rapids, said she appreciated the governor’s attention to housing.

“If there’s a time, the time is now, and that has to say a lot,” she said. “There is such a bipartisan coalition, as well as a bicameral coalition … but also, the time is now because Michiganders, they want something different, and if we’re not going to be able to provide them with the housing that, not only they can afford, but they can love, they’re going to leave.”

House Minority Leader Rep. Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton Township, said Whitmer balanced highlighting the achievements of her tenure and understanding the political climate by selecting proposals with bipartisan support.

“The reality is that there are not a lot of things that are politically viable in 2026,” he said. “We’re in split government … and so what I’m hopeful for is in an election year when the eyeballs of the country are going to be on our state, and when the eyeballs of the voters are going to be on Lansing to see what we’re doing, that there is more of a desire from my counterparts on the other side of the aisle to protect working Michiganders and not just toe the company line.”

If House Republicans aren’t willing to put Michigan before partisan politics, Puri predicted a contentious election in November that would “shift the dynamics in Lansing.”

Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said Whitmer set the perfect tone for her final year in office.

“Affordability, education, housing – all of it is what’s on people’s minds,” she said.

McMorrow said the issues the governor talked about reflect the priorities of Michigan residents that she’s heard while campaigning for U.S. Senate.

“I’m really celebrating what we’ve done on state level – the fact that we have a breakfast and lunch program that’s saving families hundreds of dollars a year, that we’ve got a universal pre-K program, that’s $15,000 that you save in a year and granting access to education. So, my message is, Michigan is a laboratory of democracy.”

Sen. Jermey Moss, D-Bloomfield Township, said he appreciated that the governor found areas of bipartisanship that would build upon the work of the Democratic trifecta, specifically around housing.

“When the governor heralded the new housing, a lot of that was built by legislation that was bipartisan and passed out of the Legislature last session,” Moss said. “So, let’s build on that.”

Heading into budget negotiations during an election year, Moss said much of the partisanship in Lansing is artificial.

“I saw Speaker Hall stand up a few times during Governor Whitmer’s address, so I think that’s an important signal that there’s a willingness to agree on the core principles of what we need to do,” he said. “There is room for a non-partisan lens to solve our problems.”

In contrast, Rep. Carol Glanville, D-Walker, said she thought navigating politics to achieve bipartisan goals would be difficult this year.

“People always say literacy, education for our kids, that’s not a partisan issue, and yet it tends to be,” she said. “It comes down to the appropriation. We always say that a budget is a document that demonstrates our values, and if we honestly value our kid’s education, we will make the investment in it.”

Looking ahead toward the budget cycle, the anticipated revenue shortfall, current proposals around property taxes, and the programmatic spending championed by Whitmer during her speech, Glanville said she thought the most important thing was keeping the School Aid Fund whole.

“We can’t just take money from our schools and pretend we’re not,” she said. “If we’re going to do that, we’ve got to make sure that we find the money to fill the gap.”

Glanville said Whitmer’s focus on phonics, numeracy and tutoring programs was important.

“In the past, we’ve seen more of a punitive approach, with the Read by Grade Three, without giving our schools and our kids the resources they needed to be successful, and so here, now, we’re going to actually give them the tools. And I think that’s the right approach, and I’m excited to see it come to fruition.”

Rep. Matt Koleszar, D-Plymouth, also highlighted the governor’s focus on education and discussed education funding.

“We were last in the country in funding growth for two decades. You can’t fix that overnight,” he said. “Now that we’ve got funding in place … I’m very confident we’ll see results go up.”

He said phonics training the governor talked about during her speech and the dyslexia literacy legislation that will take effect in 2027 would also lead to improvement in Michigan’s test scores.

“But, when you look at test scores, you will often notice affluent areas tend to do better. They have more resources,” he said. “It’s always important to point that out, because I think it often gets overlooked.”

Koleszar said he was encouraged by the enthusiasm he saw from his Republican counterparts Wednesday night during the governor’s speech.

“I was intrigued and actually encouraged when I saw a lot of them standing for getting rid of medical debt,” he said. “The fact that we all seem to be in agreement on that, maybe, just maybe, we can find something there and make some good progress.”

While the Detroit Regional Chamber is convinced the “house is on fire” in the state’s national rankings, residents view Michigan as middle of the road in student performance, average income, and job market, according to a new poll.

In a poll of around 600 registered voters, about two-thirds of voters also do not have a position on data centers, and only just more than half have ever heard or seen anything about data centers, an issue many campaigns have begun to stake a strong position on.

Sandy K. Baruah, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber, said while he has been stressing population issues and future economic development in the face of falling hard and fast on key metrics across the country, it is clear Michiganders don’t feel this plunge.

Across party lines, voters roughly ranked Michigan 25th in percentage of population with a college degree, in which Michigan is 33rd, 26th in student performance in reading, which actually stands at 44th, 27th in average income per person, which stands at 40th, 27th in attracting high-tech jobs, which stands at 45th, and 28th in unemployment rate, which also stands at 45th.

Baruah said it’s important for Michiganders to know the real rankings.

“In order for our elected officials of both parties to act, we need our population to understand where we are, how far we’ve fallen, what the situation is,” he said. “Because if our voters don’t demand fundamental change our, elected officials are not going to implement that.”

While data centers appear to be dominating the conversation of economic development in recent months, with hyperscale projects popping up across the state including the controversial OpenAI site in Saline Township, there seems to be a disconnect with the voters, Baruah said.

Around 57.2% of voters had seen or heard anything about data centers, while 42.4% have not. A quarter of those aware of the argument were in opposition and only 5% were in support, but 65.7% did not offer a position.

The voters tapped into the issue did say in a two-to-one margin, from 36.4% to 19.3% of voters, that data centers will provide economic benefits, while 20.3% said they would have no impact and 23.3% said they did not know.

Those who said it will offer benefits emphasized job benefits, with 60.7% saying the centers will provide more jobs and 15.1% claiming expansion will provide better-paying tech jobs.

The highest percentage of those who have heard of data centers were college-educated voters by 70.2%.

Of those who gave a neutral statement about data centers, 33.2% said they were mostly seeing news coverage on the protests against the expansion of the industry in the state.

Richard Czuba, founder of the Glengariff Group that conducted the poll, said the data proves there isn’t an active conversation on what the benefits of data centers are, just talking points that the centers may not be good for the state overall. He said Republicans are more likely to say there could be benefits than Democrats, but not by a large margin.

Another disconnect Baruah found is overwhelming support across parties for attracting high-tech jobs to the state while also being weary to uninvolved with the data center debate.

While Baruah said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is doing a good job forward-leaning on the need for data centers, she and other elected officials can do more.

“No one is really being out there advocating the facts around data centers, what they do what the value of them are, and what the real facts are around water usage and even electricity rates,” Baruah said. “There’s a lot of erroneous information out there, and really no one’s taking the lead. That’s something that we are kind of trying to mobilize around, because as an economic development organization, we’re very focused on trying to find Michigan’s next growth opportunity, and if we are a state and a citizenry that is against all types of growth, that’s a problem.”

Overall in politics, Michiganders overwhelming want both parties to compromise, but have little faith Washington, D.C., politicians will acquiesce, with 22.3% to 76% of voters not believing in their ability to compromise.

However, voters think Lansing is more likely to compromise by a margin of 54.1% to 9.7% of voters than Washington.

Economic perspectives in the poll show around half of the state believes Michigan is on the right track, inflation fears remaining high with 42.6% of voters worried about inflation, and optimism dropping on whether inflation will get better.

Baruah said he believes the reason right track numbers are higher in the state rather than national is Michiganders’ net positive position on Whitmer’s performance as well as compromise seen on a large stage with the recent road funding plan passed.

Also, for the first time in the Chamber’s surveys, according to Czuba, polling finds fewer than 50% of Michiganders believe there are good-paying jobs available for anyone in the state, sitting at 49.8%, which is around a 17-point drop from last January. White-collar voters are the most pessimistic about good-paying jobs.

“In our last survey, we actually asked voters if they knew anybody who was graduating from college and whether they were having a difficult job finding jobs, and what we found was a huge amount of those people who knew someone graduating from college having a difficult time finding jobs,” Czuba said. “I think that’s getting reflected in these white-collar numbers, very much so. But also, how you viewed the economy used to be, how you viewed the party in power. The reverse is true now, and these numbers align with that. White-collar voters are increasingly, because they have college educations, democratic, and blue-collar voters are increasingly Republican, and so that’s playing into these attitudes.”

The poll also showed an essential three-way tie in the gubernatorial race among the main candidates. The poll showed former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan with 29.8%, then U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township, with 28.3%, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson with 27.8%. The Detroit Regional Chamber has endorsed Duggan for governor.

Oral arguments will be heard by the Michigan Supreme Court next month for cases appealing permit approval for the proposed Line 5 tunnel project.

The two cases, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians v MPSC (MSC Docket No. 168335-9) and For Love of Water v MPSC (MSC Docket No. 168346), will be heard jointly before the high court on March 11 at 9:30 a.m.

In April 2025, the Court of Appeals ruled it found no reason to reverse the Public Service Commission’s decision to grant permit approval to Enbridge Energy for the project, saying the commission provided a comprehensive opinion outlining its decision and acted reasonably in considering its actions regarding Line 5.

The groups involved in the lawsuit appealed to the Supreme Court regarding the Court of Appeals decision affirming the PSC’s approval of a permit for Enbridge to build a tunnel beneath the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac for a section of pipeline to be relocated.

On September 19, 2025, the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal but did not immediately set a date for oral arguments. The high court announced its March argument schedule on Monday, which included the Line 5 lawsuits.

In the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians v MPSC case, two items are to be addressed.

First, the court will determine whether the Court of Appeals erred by applying a deferential standard of review rather than determining de novo whether the proposed conduct will pollute, impair, or destroy the air, water, or state’s other natural resources or the public trust in those resources under statute.

It also would determine if the appeals court erred in affirming the PSC’s limitation on the scope of the evidence to be reviewed regarding its determinations under MCL 324.1705(2) of the Michigan Environmental Protection Act and its decision to exclude evidence on the history and risk of oil spills along the entire length of Line 5 in those determinations.

Three items are to be reviewed under the For Love of Water v MPSC case.

First, whether in enacting MCL 324.1705(2) of the MEPA, the Legislature required the PSC to comply with the common law public trust doctrine. The second item to weigh would be, if they do not under the first item, whether the common law public trust doctrine still requires such compliance.

Finally, the court will determine whether the PSC is required to comply with the common law public trust doctrine and what a proper public trust analysis would look like in PSC proceedings.