LANSING – Governor Rick Snyder made his case for another four years as governor in his fourth State of the State address as he described Michigan as on the upswing thanks to the policies and initiatives of his administration while affirming he supports dedicating some of the state’s surplus to tax relief for “hard-working folk.”
In his 61-minute address to a Joint Convention of the House and Senate, Snyder spent about two-thirds of a his speech on reviewing the accomplishments of his first three years in office at a time when Democrats, led by their presumptive gubernatorial nominee Mark Schauer, are assailing his record on jobs and education.
Snyder ticked off a long list of negative statistics he said have declined during his tenure: violent crime, infant mortality, unadopted children, homelessness, regulations and long-term liabilities. Then he recited a list of positive statistics he said have improved: private jobs, labor force, per capita income, population, home sales, home prices, building permits, K-12 investment, access to preschool, third-grade reading proficiency, veterans services, senior protection, the Budget Stabilization Fund and the state’s credit rating.
“That’s a pretty darn good list folks,” he said. “The last decade was a bad decade. In 2011, we started relentless positive action to reinvent Michigan. We’ve become the comeback state. But our work is not done.”
Given the re-election dynamic this year, Snyder had to shelve one of his favorite lines: “no credit, no blame.” The speech’s theme was “The Comeback Continues” and Snyder frequently remarked “fabulous” when recounting positive data.
While Snyder has yet to say the words “I am running for re-election,” he is clearly running, with ads having aired in October and more on the way in February, and laying out in painstaking detail in the speech the successes on his watch. He even told House Minority Leader Tim Greimel (D-Auburn Hills), who is eligible to run for two more terms, during the speech that he looks forward to working with him in the years to come.
For a governor not given to political battling, he clearly decided to mount a counteroffensive to the Democratic emphasis that he has cut K-12 education spending when he said in fact per pupil spending is up $660 since he took office.
“This is a topic that has a lot of misinformation out there on it,” he said. “So I’m here tonight to set the record straight.”
Democrats on the west side of the House chamber sat stone-faced while those on Twitter howled that Snyder was cooking the numbers to come up with such a figure.
As far as outlining his agenda for 2014, it fell somewhere between the heft of 2013 when he called for $1.2 billion in new funds for roads and the thinness of his 2012 speech that contained no major new proposals. There was no blockbuster surprise like 2011 when the governor declared his support for building a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
What could well be the dominant issue at the Capitol for the first half of 2014 in fact was one Snyder did not discuss: his privately pitched plan to legislators for the state to commit $350 million over 20 years to help bring Detroit out of bankruptcy without triggering the sale of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ works yet protecting retired city of Detroit worker pensions. On Detroit, Mr. Snyder simply declared, “I’m not going to dwell on it tonight other than to say let’s get it resolved this year.”
The other issue likely to dominate the first half of the year – tax relief – also saw Snyder give his firmest statement to date that some form of tax relief is coming as part of addressing the $971 million in surplus revenue through the 2014-15 fiscal year.
Snyder said the state should “act like a family, a big family of 10 million people,” and take care of needed investments, pay down liabilities and dedicate some of the money to the Budget Stabilization Fund. He sought to put himself in the middle of the road.
“It’s not about a government that simply says let’s spend everything. And it’s not about a government that simply says let’s do a tax cut for everything,” he said. “Let’s be smart about how we handle this situation.”
But Snyder made clear some tax relief is coming and he said it should primarily benefit lower- and middle-income workers.
“The people that come to mind in particular are those hard-working Michiganders that get up every day, they pack their lunch to go to work, they work hard all day, they come home tired and after they get home they’re worried about their bills. I don’t think we can solve all their issues, but we can help,” he said. “It should go to those hard-working folk.”
Snyder outlined notable initiatives on immigration, truancy and improving how the state monitors local governments and school districts for financial troubles.
The governor also recommended putting new money in the budget to enable school districts, if they wish, to move toward year-round schooling. Snyder’s proposal would not increase the number of days in the school year, but the money would ease the logistics of spreading the existing days into portions of the summer.
Top Snyder aide Bill Rustem said year-round schooling improves knowledge retention among students, especially for the poor who may not have access to books during the summer recess.
As expected – this was pledged a year ago – Snyder said his 2014-15 fiscal year budget recommendation would seek another $65 million increase for early childhood education on top of the $65 million in new spending appropriated for the current 2013-14 fiscal year.
In other proposals, Snyder urged:
? The Legislature to back amending the U.S. Constitution by requiring a balanced federal budget except in certain emergencies;
? Funding to combat several invasive species, such as the Asian long-horned beetle, from damaging the state’s natural resources;
? Clearing waiting lists for Meals on Wheels and the state’s home help care services;
? Passage of bills to protect seniors from scams;
? Passage of legislation (SB 295 ) barring owners delinquent on their property taxes from purchasing properties at tax foreclosure auctions, a major issue in Detroit; and
? Money to implement the new teacher evaluation system.
The partisan atmosphere was clear. Democrats often sat silently and Republicans rose for standing ovations as Snyder recounted accomplishments of the past three years. GOP lawmakers especially went wild with applause when the governor called for the Legislature to back a balanced budget amendment for the U.S. Constitution.
But Snyder reached out on occasion.
He thanked the entire House and Senate Democratic caucuses for supporting Medicaid expansion and reform as well as the primary Republican authors of that landmark law from 2013.
The governor praised the “Big Four” leaders of southeast Michigan – Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and even the scandal-plagued Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, complimenting Ficano’s work on water and sewer issues in the region.
Snyder is not an orator and would never claim to be one, instead relishing his CPA background, filling his speech with data and metrics to make his case for his administration and where the state needs to go. But he sought in his speech to leaven all those numbers with some personal stories, giving numerous “shout outs” to people in the gallery who illustrated the points he wanted to make.
Among them was Deb Smith of the Department of Human Services, whose work largely involves instituting an infant safe sleep program in two counties. During the ice storm, Smith aided a new mother, who was not a client of hers, after a call came from the local health department indicating the mother did not know what to do to safely put her infant to sleep. Smith took a “pack and play” system to her in the middle of the ice storm and showed her how to use it, Snyder said.
“She may have saved that child’s life,” he said. “That’s the kind of person that works for the state of Michigan.”
The governor quickly spoke of the need to resolve the transportation funding issue. He made superficial mention of a major coming debate on energy. And he made no mention of the ongoing talks of major changes in how auto insurance handles medical benefits for those catastrophically injured in traffic crashes.
In a speech that helps set the stage for Snyder’s re-election bid, he hearkened back to his 2010 campaign theme to reinvent Michigan and said voters made a statement when they elected him and put Republicans in charge of the Legislature.
“We were hired to do a job,” he said. “I’m proud to report tonight we’re getting that job done.”
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