LANSING — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer warned during her first State of the State address that it would take "bold choices" to improve life for Michigan state workers.

Union leaders agreed that if bold choices meant supporting workers, they were in.

"They're going to really have to do something more than provide lip service to that," Michigan Corrections Organization President Byron Osborn said. "Some legislators are going to have to get together and set aside some of that partisanship."

State departments are understaffed, underfunded and lack diversity, Whitmer said Tuesday in the Michigan House of Representative chambers, where she spoke in front of hundreds of state legislators and their families.

She emphasized the vital role public service workers play in providing valuable services to Michigan residents, but she said the tasks were often thankless for Michigan's nearly 50,000 state workers.

Whitmer likened state workers' challenges to others facing the state — poor roads, low-achieving schools and a tight state budget.

Those problems "are even tougher to solve because pressures on our state government have been building up for years," she said.

Whitmer's transition team visited state departments early this year to talk to state workers. Her office issued a report Monday describing low workplace morale, inefficient technology, low staffing and a scant budget.

"A government that doesn’t work today can’t get the job done for tomorrow. And that ends now," Whitmer said to applause. "As a state, we must make the bold choices so we can build a stronger Michigan. And we need to work together."

How those bold choices take shape depends on a lot of factors, said Steve Rzeppa, spokesman for AFSCME Council 25.

First: what do we consider bold?

"Compared to the last administration, bold would be actually valuing the voices of those doing the work today," he said.

Under former Gov. Rick Snyder, Michigan became a right-to-work state and limited what public workers could negotiate during collective bargaining with the state.

Rzeppa said AFSCME members are confident Whitmer will address other issues facing state employees and other workers in Michigan, such as making child care more affordable, expanding protections for LGBT workers and reducing the gender gap in pay.

Osborn also pointed to retirement benefits for state workers. He said the Department of Corrections has trouble retaining staff members because while hourly pay is competitive, health care and retirement packages are not.

"They’ve eroded the benefits package (to the point) where the folks they are hiring aren’t staying in this line of work," he said.

There were approximately 700 Department of Corrections vacancies in December.

The Michigan Corrections Organization and department were at loggerheads late last year over those vacancies and other issues union leaders said have led to staff burnout and a dangerous work environment.

Rep. Julie Brixie, D-Meridian Township, agreed with Whitmer's call to fix understaffing at state agencies. She pointed specifically to the Department of Health and Human Services' child welfare department, which came under fire in a scathing September audit.

"We need to hire some more people in order to handle the issues that are out there," she said.

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Contact Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.