SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WXYZ) — Governor-Elect Gretchen Whitmer will officially take office Tuesday Jan. 1.
You can watch live streaming coverage of her swearing in here on WXYZ.com.
Throughout her campaign she focused a lot on roads, education and even speaking out about Nestle, taking water out of our Great Lakes for almost nothing.
Whitmer said she will get to work right away when she takes office. The Governor-Elect spoke about several issues during her campaign, but nothing stood out like, fixing the roads, education and the water problem in Flint.
"Fix the damn roads," Whitmer said at several campaign rallies.
Whitmer's plan to fix the roads is to have an infrastructure bank with state funds available in loans or grants to help local governments pay for infrastructure repairs.
"If you believe clean drinking water is a fundamental human right raise your hands," Whitmer said.
Nothing struck a nerve more than the water issue in Flint, especially after Nestle released a video providing water to residents.
Whitmer told Great Lakes Now, “It’s ridiculous that Nestle can pull as much water out of the state as they want for barely any fee while dozens of communities in Michigan don’t have clean drinking water.”
"I don’t believe that they should be taking the water out of our ground and selling it, and I want to stop that," Whitmer said.
The Governor-Elect also wants to reform the laws that govern our waters, saying to Great Lakes Now, “The current law that regulates water diversion from the Great Lakes basin is ten-years-old. If we want to become a world leader in water stewardship, we’ve got to update the laws that control our water.”
Whitmer's stance on education focuses on children first.
"We will make Michigan a place where people come to for opportunity where every child gets a great education," she said.
Whitmer's plan focuses on a child’s first one thousand days and prioritize early childhood education funding and ensure children get a full curriculum of classes and opportunities.
Whitmer will be sworn in Tuesday morning at 10:30 in Lansing.
