Latest news, weather, high school sports for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

LANSING -- "I find nothing but hope for the new Michigan on the other side.  With your commitment and mine, and by the grace of God, let us go forth."

With those words, Governor Granholm ended her final State of the State Address in Lansing Wednesday evening.

Over the course of the speech, which lasted an hour, the Governor received close to 20 standing ovations as she outlined her final 11 months in office.

"Our world has changed.  Utterly.  The old Michigan economy is gone.  Anyone who believed that Michigan would just naturally rebound without making deep and lasting change had a rendezvous with reality in 2009," said Granholm.

Time Magazine called the decade that just ended "The Decade from Hell," and Governor Granholm agreed, stating that in the last ten years, more than one million jobs have been lost statewide, and it's time for change.  She says Michigan can't rely on manufacturing and the auto industry any longer.  Instead, it's time to create new jobs in fields like clean energy, life sciences, homeland security, film and tourism.

"And personally, I want to thank the Obama Administration and supportive members of Congress on behalf of the 42,000 people who now have jobs in Michigan through Recovery Act funding," she said.

More immediately, Granholm says it's time to balance a budget:

"The budget process is broken.  It is a last minute, crisis driven disaster.  We must do better."

The Governor assures that she'll have a budget presented by the February 12 deadline, and she called for a Constitutional Amendment that if Legislature doesn't have a proposal back to her by July 1, they'll all work without pay.

Other things the Governor outlined:

The Michigan Promise Scholarship will be making a return.  Educating students in Michigan to work in Michigan keeps people in Michigan.

She's also begging Legislators to reinvest in the Pure Michigan Campaign, stating that for every dollar spent, more than two dollars comes into the state.

She's also going to continue to fight hard for Federal funding so the state can invest in jobs and education.

In reaction, Republicans say that it's too many broken promises.  Since 2003, Granholm has talked about creating a total of 700,000 jobs.  Instead, the state has lost a million.

She's got 11 months left to write her legacy.