GRAND RAPIDS – In the strongest terms he has used yet, Governor Rick Snyder called a Democratic Governors Association ad attacking him for cutting school funds “hogwash” and a “lie” in comments made at a forum in Grand Rapids, the Kalamazoo Gazette Editorial Board and then at the first town hall of his campaign.

For most of the year, the DGA has peppered Snyder with the allegation that he cut $1 billion in K-12 spending. That claim is based on a now outdated Senate Fiscal Agency memo analyzing the change in funding in the 2011-12 fiscal year. Funding for basic operations did go down, but not by $1 billion and Snyder has emphasized funding actually went up overall when including money allocated for the teacher retirement system.

“I would like to clear up the biggest piece of hogwash on television today,” he told his town hall on the campus of Western Michigan University. “They’re lying to you.”

Snyder made similar comments in response to a question after his prepared remarks to the West Michigan Policy Forum, several media outlets reported. Snyder is the first sitting governor to attend the conference, which also featured former Governor James Blanchard in a session on term limits.

And even in those prepared remarks, Snyder was more animated than he has been typically, especially in arguing that his administration was geared towards changing the role of government to focus it on providing better customer service.

Snyder also said during the questions that his biggest priority was getting a transportation funding package completed before the end of the year. He wanted that done in his first term, he said.

Snyder’s comments also come several days after his campaign released a new television ad featuring a retired teacher (who is also Snyder’s Gun Lake neighbor) saying Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer had gone along with former Governor Jennifer Granholm to cut state education spending (though the specific bill cited, while it did include cuts in School Aid Funding, included a large increase in General Fund spending for schools which resulted in a slight net increase for the schools, and which was supported by almost all the Republicans in the Legislature in 2003).

They also come as Republicans have pushed for a harder tone in Snyder’s campaign to fight Schauer. The Democrat has thus far proven to have run a tougher campaign than many people expected (though clearly also helped by the heavy advertising push by the DGA) and has stayed tight with Snyder in the polls.

Snyder had said he wanted to maintain a positive tone in the campaign, and up to late last week the hard hitting aspects of the campaign were handled by the Michigan Republican Party and the Republican Governors Association.

Snyder was responding to an ad run by the DGA that showed a teacher in suburban Detroit charging Snyder with cutting school funding.

Snyder said the ad was a load of “hogwash,” as well as a “flat-out lie.”

His comments drew a round of applause according to several of those attending the event.

Snyder also said he is helping to shore up the pension for the teacher in the ad attacking him.

The issue of teacher pensions is where the dispute over Snyder’s funding for schools comes in. Much of the increase has gone to helping strengthen the public education pension system. Democrats have charged that came at a cost to funds for daily operations in the classrooms.

Snyder also said he will push for a transportation proposal to get enacted during the legislative lame duck session. The primary and general elections made it impossible for legislators to deal with the issue before then, and he considers it a top priority to complete before 2015.

At his town hall, Snyder stuck to familiar themes. After complaints from Democrats that the Snyder campaign had cancelled their tickets to the event, at least one did appear to get through and asked Snyder how voters could ever trust him given his promises of transparency yet controversies involving his now closed NERD fund and decision to sign right-to-work after he repeatedly said it was not on his agenda.

Snyder pointed to the state government dashboard he started as a sign of transparency and noted he had supported right-to-work before he became governor.

“I didn’t go looking for this one,” he said. “But when it’s put on the table, I don’t back away from a tough issue.”

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com