DETROIT – Gov. Rick Snyder, speaking at the Michigan Emerging conference on Monday, once again highlighted his five keys to reinventing Michigan. The first term Republican governor also defended his decision to do away with most state tax breaks, saying his simplified business tax code has already begun paying dividends by creating new jobs.

Snyder five keys include:

Technology: Snyder said the state?s research universities give it a great foundation in technology, and ?we need to support and invest in them.? The state is also rich in inventors and corporate research and development.

Talent: ?We have fabulous talent in our state,? Snyder said. ?We have talent looking for opportunity.? Snyder said the one weak spot in Michigan?s talent pool is the ?serial CEO,? which founds one company after another. And he said the state should make efforts to keep its foreign university students here after graduation because ?they are job creators.?

Capital: Snyder laid out the four types of private capital – angel, seed, venture and second stage – and noted that the state ?could do a lot better at the angel level. We have a lot of successful people here but they tend to be risk averse and for the most part have not been involved in angel investing.?

Infrastructure: Not roads and bridges, ?although that?s critically important for our large industries,? but the infrastructure of people who support entrepreneurship, but service providers, attorneys, accountants, engineers, Web designers, marketers, and ?government that treats you as a customer, not as the enemy.? Snyder said his flat 6 percent business tax will help here, as will his investment in ?economic gardening right here in our own back yard instead of trying to bring new people in.?

Culture: Snyder said Michigan?s culture has grown ?too negative, too much of a win lose mentality. We need to change our culture to one that?s positive, forward-looking, inclusive, that?s about Michiganders winning together.? He said his administration will ?blame no one for anything, and we don?t take credit for anything, we stay focused on solving problems.?

Snyder said eliminating most state tax breaks was the right thing to do. He singled out the Michigan Film Credit, once 42 cents on the dollar, now a flat $25 million pool available to hire Michigan residents to work on films, ?didn?t make sense from an economic point of view compared to the jobs it created. There are higher priorities.?

He also said the Life Sciences Corridor, created with tobacco settlement money by former Gov. John Engler, was ?too much a case of the government picking winners and losers.?

Snyder said his new state business tax, a flat 6 percent tax on profits that goes into effect Jan. 1, has ?already seen positive impact in terms of people knowing that it?s coming.?

But he said tax credits awarded by previous administrations as far as 2032 are worth nearly $8 billion, meaning each new state budget starts out about $500 million in the red.

Snyder said that as an alternative to long-term tax breaks, ?My opinion is that if someone has a good enough project, they should just raise their hand and say, ?Write me a check.? So we have a fund for investments in critical situations, but it?s much more defined and not hidden in the tax code.?

What?s more, Snyder said, those who view business as a dictatorship don?t know what they?re talking about.

?People say it must be a big change to go from being in business to the government, because in business you could tell people what to do,? Snyder said. ?Frankly, that?s a really ignorant statement, because the only way you succeed in building a company, in building an organization, is to have a win for multiple parties. Your employees have to win, your customers have to win, your employers have to win, your community has to win.?

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