Snyder's State of the State focused too much on problems, not solutions
“Simply put, job one is jobs.”
That was Governor Rick Snyder’s opening point in Wednesday’s State of the State address. The Governor pledged to stop “the fighting that resulted in rhetoric and paralysis” and said, “It is time to solve problems.”
Snyder stressed that the government needs to be reformed and based on results, unveiling the Michigan Dashboard, an online way of tracking how the state is doing on issues ranging from economic strength to public safety. The website is a bold move that will give voters a direct way of tracking how his administration performs over the next four years.
Snyder unveiled his plan to pass the budget quicker than previous years, promising to present his budget by mid-February, a month earlier than the deadline. Instead of a one-year budget, it will be a two-year budget, with the second year functioning as a guideline.
A desire to pass the budget on time will be welcomed by many Michiganders, but while Snyder went on to talk about initiatives he wants to introduce, the one thing that was missing was how he was going to pay for it.
While the state is facing a budget shortfall, Snyder was proposing increasing our focus on education, expanding from a Kindergarten-12th grade plan to a prenatal through college, or “P-20” plan. He continued to talk about various other programs he would like to see implemented, but there was relatively little talk of spending cuts or revenue increases.
Revenue sharing and eliminating government inefficiency will only get the state so far, and with a budget shortfall close to $2 billion, the cost saving methods Snyder proposed will not be enough.
Parts of his speech were too focused on what is wrong with the state instead of how he will fix it, such as his proposed elimination of the Michigan Item Pricing Act, a law that requires companies to place price tags on each individual product. While the law has major flaws, simply repealing it without putting anything in its place would be disastrous for consumers.
He also backed the Detroit River International Crossing, a new toll bridge to Canada that would be paid for largely with Canadian and Federal funds. If the bridge ends up being a revenue generator for the state, more power to the Governor, but if it ends up costing us millions of dollars without generating much revenue, this will be seen as a wasteful project by many.
Governor Snyder had a lot of good ideas for the next four years, but he was lacking on how to pay for them. Hopefully over the next few months, he will continue to lay out his full plan, so that we can successfully “reinvent Michigan.”
