GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer followed up her State of State speech with a Thursday morning stop in Grand Rapids.

At the United Methodist Community House on Sheldon Avenue SE near Martin Luther King Jr. Street, she met with local seniors to talk the points she made in her speech on Wednesday night.

Of particular interest was the governor’s proposal to do away with the pension tax, something she says could put $1,000 back in the pockets of 500,000 retirees. The state Legislature, now controlled by Democrats, has already started working on that plan.

The pension tax was enacted 12 years ago, when Whitmer was a state senator. She said she opposed it then and has been trying to get rid of it ever since.

“If you work for a lifetime, you play by the rules, you calculate when you can afford to retire, and then someone changes the math on you and takes all your money away, it threw a lot of people into financial crisis, having to find additional work or cut out things that are necessities,” Whitmer said.

When Whitmer mentioned programs that aimed to lower costs to combat inflation, roundtable attendees murmured in agreement. In addition to the tax change, she touted proposals to expand the working families tax credit (also known as the earned income tax credit) and preschool options.

Whitmer also planned a stop in Muskegon Thursday afternoon.