metro
Making A Choice
Get to know the candidates for governor.
I
Jackie Headapohl
Managing Editor
C
ome Nov. 4, Michigan residents will
be choosing a governor at the ballot
box: either selecting Republican
incumbent Gov. Rick Snyder for four more
years or choosing to go down a new path
with Democratic challenger and former U.S.
Congressman Mark Schauer.
The Jewish News invited each candidate
into our offices for an interview on their
priorities and positions. Snyder came in Oct.
5 and Schauer came in Oct 8. What follows
are highlights from the conversations, edited
for clarity. Check back with the JN next week
to read who we endorse for the position.
JN: What is your vision for Michigan in the
next four years?
Snyder: There are three main focuses, and
many are a continuation of what we've been
doing. I want to continue the reinvention
of Michigan and enhance it to make sure it
spreads to more and more people. I know
there are still people out there struggling.
The first topic I cover is more and better
jobs. We've added nearly 300,000 private
sector jobs, but there are still people looking
for better employment. We have too much
underemployment in some ways. We have a
huge opportunity in front of us to help peo-
ple become more career-connected. There
are just over 90,000 open middle-class jobs
on MichiganTalent.org. Many aren't being
filled because those looking for jobs don't
have the appropriate skill sets.
In addition to encouraging people to
get university degrees, we need to equally
emphasize a career-tech education track.
We've started doing that with our program
MAT' Squared, an apprenticeship program
that's been started at Oakland and Henry
Ford community colleges. After three years,
participants graduate without any tuition
debt, with an associate's degree, a certificate
in their field and a guaranteed job for two
years. This program, currently helping doz-
ens of people, is expanding. My goal is for
this program to help thousands.
Second thing is our education system. I
call it "pre-20," prenatal through age 20. I'm
proud of our record on preschool. We've
become a no-wait state for preschool. We've
invested more in preschool in the
last three years than any other state
in the nation. In my second term,
I plan to place more emphasis on
third-grade reading. On K-12 — and
that's the biggest piece of hogwash
on TV today is special interest lying
on my record and saying that I cut
K-12 spending — that's simply a lie.
Over the last three years, we put $1.1
billion more toward public schools.
It's over a billion dollars higher in the
budget I just signed than the year
before I took office.
The next stage is career-tech
training like I talked about and also
helping the university-track college
students. I want to do much more
dual-enrollment where high school
students can enroll in community
college and essentially graduate high
school with one year of college under
their belt. That's a savings of 25 per-
cent on a bachelor's degree.
My last focus is on good government.
That's continuing the path of structurally
balanced budgets, a half-billion dollars in the
state's rainy day fund. We do 50-year fore-
casts now We've reformed our liabilities and
put in a payment plan for our pension liabili-
ties to essentially have it paid off by 2038. We
need to stay on that path.
IN: What do you say to the working-class
families and seniors on fixed incomes who
are still struggling in this economy?
Snyder: We're working to help them. One
huge thing we've done is Healthy Michigan
— where we expanded Medicaid and added
more personal responsibility and wellness to
the front end. Over 400,000 hard-working,
lower-income residents now have health
insurance.
We've done a lot of good things with
seniors. We're making Michigan a no-wait
state for programs like Meals on Wheels, and
we're providing help to keep seniors aging in
their homes.
I'd also be happy to clear up something on
what people call the "pension tax." We did
change our tax code to make it fairer. We
had an exclusion in the Michigan Income
Tax Code for certain kinds of pensioning —
regardless of your age or your income. We
grandfathered in all the seniors 67 and older,
who still do not pay income tax on those
pensions. We put in a modified rule for more
generous benefits for those 60 and older.
Then we changed the exclusion to include
any seniors — married couples older than
60 are exempt up to $40,000 on any type of
income from paying Michigan income tax.
IN: Michigan has an infrastructure prob-
lem — particularly our crumbling roads
— that needs to be addressed. You came
up with a long-term plan to address the
issue but were unable to convince the leg-
islature to appropriate the needed funds.
What do you plan to do about this in your
next term?
Snyder: Actually, I hope to address this
before my current term is done. There's a
good likelihood to get it done after the elec-
tion. I was calling for the need to invest more
in our infrastructure two or three years ago.
We've been underinvesting for a decade or
longer. Asking for additional revenue to
invest in infrastructure is a difficult thing to
do. I wasn't getting very far. But the biggest
assistance I had was pothole season this year.
That's what changed the dynamic. Citizens
began to join the chorus.
Both chambers have been exchanging
bills in a bipartisan fashion. I think we have
a lot of pieces to the solution. But this is an
election year, and when you ask someone to
vote for increased revenue — essentially a
tax increase — there were legislators in both
parties where that was just too difficult to get
to. I think we can get it done after the elec-
tion. It's my top priority for the lame duck
session.
IN: Let's talk about Right to Work, some-
thing you said in your first campaign that
was not on your agenda, but is now law.
Snyder: I said I didn't want to address Right
to Work, but you can go back and look at
my record a long, long time ago where I said
I supported Right to Work I didn't want to
talk about it though because it is a divisive
issue. But then labor made it a divisive issue
in our state. In the summer of 2012, Proposal
2 was about collective bargaining put into the
Michigan constitution — that would have
destroyed our state's economy.
I went to a labor management council that
summer and asked them to "please don't go
forward with Proposal 2." They ignored me.
It got on the ballot and was soundly defeated.
After that, Right to Work came to my desk
and I signed it because I am a supporter. It's
standing up for hard-working Michiganders
who should have a choice about joining a
union or not. If anything, I hope this makes
unions more accountable. Passing Right to
Work also increased our business develop-
ment pipeline.
IN: You promised to make the Michigan-
Israel connection stronger than any other
state. What have you done and what do
you plan on doing?
Snyder: We already do have the strongest
relationship with Israel than any other state.
We signed an agreement with Israel for
industrial R & D cooperation. We're also
looking at cultural opportunities on how we
can work together. We plan to continue trade
missions. We're looking at taking another
trade mission to Israel next year. We're also
looking at cyber-security cooperation. I'd
like to establish Michigan as the place for
cyber security We're doing a summit on
cyber security within the next few months
and have invited a delegation from Israel to
attend.
JN: Detroit is on the comeback. What are
you going to continue to do to revitalize
the city?
Snyder: I'm proud of my record on Detroit.
I took that one on head on and made some
tough decisions. A lot of people didn't like
the idea of emergency managers and didn't
like the idea of bankruptcy, but everyone's
rallied together to make it successful and
we should be proud. Hopefully, Detroit will
emerge from bankruptcy in the next couple
of months. The mayor and the city council
are already running the city. We've made a
very large partnership commitment to the
city and we're going to continue that.
We've done a lot of things, including fix-
ing up Belle Isle, which is now a safe place
to go and have a picnic, while saving the city
money. Look at the Ml rail project, more
buses — we're a major supporter of that
We got behind the arena project and the
Making A Choice on page 16
14 October 16 • 2014