Should Gov. Gretchen Whitmer be credited with the $400-per-vehicle refund checks Michigan residents received this year, by way of the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association?

It depends. Whitmer herself has taken both the “yes” and the “no” position.

Last year, when the checks were announced, Whitmers’ allies blasted out ads, spreading the message far and wide, that the governor deserved credit for the refund.

“I got insurance companies to send refund checks directly back to you,” Whitmer said in the 30-second spots, which aired during college football bowl season.

But on the debate stage Tuesday night, Republican challenger Tudor Dixon challenged the timing of the refund checks and noted the higher auto insurance bills that followed. Whitmer then claimed to be powerless.

Video of the debate is online. Start at about 42:30 for the relevant exchange. Watch for about three minutes.

“Sometimes, legislation has unintended consequences,” Dixon said. “The governor knew that there was going to be a lawsuit when she decided to give away a catastrophic injury fund and give $400 checks back to everybody in Michigan.”

Dixon added: “Now that the lawsuit has gone through, you’re going to get a bill for $48, because she gave you those checks just a little too soon.”

Whitmer struck back.

After calling Dixon ill-prepared, Whitmer said: “The governor doesn't decide for the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association what the checks are going to be.”

Does Whitmer deserve credit for the $400 refund, or not? 

Whitmer has struggled to get her story straight lately. A recent claim, that Michigan had “created 30,000 auto jobs” since she took office, was 25,000 jobs off.

And while recent TV ads tout Whitmer signing 800 bipartisan bills since taking office, earlier claims used the number 900. The actual figure, 975, is closer to 1,000.

One can forgive that confusion, given the fast pace of Lansing lawmaking. The 800-law mark was only crossed in March. The 900th was signed in June.

As of Oct. 24, Whitmer has signed 975 laws as governor, per Public Acts Tables compiled by Michigan’s Legislative Council.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican challenger Tudor Dixon held their second and final debate Tuesday night. In an hour-long discussion on Michigan’s future, Whitmer misled about school closings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whitmer stated during the debate, “Mrs. Dixon says that I kept students out longer than any other state. That’s just not true. … Kids were out (of school) for three months.”

This is not accurate. While individual school districts decided whether to send kids back in the fall of the 2020-21 school year, Whitmer did not encourage schools to return to in-person learning until January 2021.

Which is why it was a curious statement on behalf of Whitmer when she radically misinformed viewers on actions she took during her unilateral lockdown of K-12 schools. Without consulting with or considering the Legislature’s input on pandemic mitigation strategies, the governor ordered schools to close in March 2020. She ended up closing them for the rest of the academic year. Most schools did not even engage in online learning until the fall due to the sudden decision.

On March 10, 2020, the state announced that two cases of COVID-19 had been detected. On March 12, Whitmer ordered schools shut from March 16 through April 5, due to twelve presumptive cases of COVID-19. She subsequently determined that schools should remain shut for the rest of academic year.

After schools decided to offer in-person, on-line instruction only, or a hybrid approach for the 2020-21 school year, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, an executive branch agency, once again ordered schools shut November 15, for three weeks. High schools and colleges were forbidden from holding in-person classes.

After the emergency powers Whitmer invoked were struck down by the Michigan Supreme Court in October 2020, in a case filed by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, Whitmer then issued orders through the state health department.

As The Detroit News reported:

Whitmer said Friday she "vehemently" disagreed with the court's ruling, which she said made Michigan an "outlier" among the majority of states that have emergency orders in place.

The governor said that even after the Supreme Court ruling takes effect, her directives will remain in place through "alternative sources of authority."

It wasn’t until January 2021 that Whitmer announced schools should get back to in-person learning, no later than March 1.

“I strongly encourage districts to provide as much face-to-face learning as possible, and my administration will work closely with them to get it done,” Whitmer said at the time.

Only then, a year after the pandemic started, did Whitmer decide that the masks and other mitigation strategies put in place by school districts were safe enough for students to return to the classroom.