Governor Rick Snyder’s recent campaign ad brands the former Gateway CEO as “One Successful Nerd” and claims “50th out of 50? No way and never again.”
Well, according to Forbes’ “Best States for Business” list, Michigan isn’t 50th out of 50, but it’s pretty darn close. Forbes’ annual rankings had Michigan’s business climate ranked 47th out of 50.
Forbes’ profile on Michigan says, “ Since Governor Rick Snyder took office in 2011, Michigan has been undergoing huge changes.”
But apparently those huge changes, which included Right to Work, have not made the state better for business — as was often claimed by its proponents.
According to Forbes, Michigan ranks 48th in Labor Supply; 47th in Economic Climate; 47th in Growth Prospects.
It’s pretty clear: What Snyder is doing is flat-out not working.
By balancing a $1.8 billion big business tax break on the backs of school kids, seniors and working Michiganders, the results have not faired well. Unemployment has risen for the third straight month and is up to 9 percent. And median household incomes have declined 19.1 percent over the past 10 years — the worst in the country.
Businesses want an educated workforce and good schools for their workers. This is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve with the higher costs of a college education due to lack of state funding and conservatives’ devastating funding cuts to K12 schools.
As for public infrastructure? Businesses want solid roads and bridges to move products and people, but it seems that Snyder (even though it was one of his top priorities) can’t get any support for improving the state’s roadways. His lack of leadership is becoming more and more apparent.
We’re not exactly sure why Snyder feels comfortable with the title of “One Successful Nerd.” For a governor who is supposedly obsessed with metics and results, his track record is pretty weak.
Agree with all of this. We need to get our vote out in 2014 and we will make this One Week Geek a One Term Nerd and then put this state back on a path to a strong economy that works for ALL of Michigan not just the 1% that Snyder and Devos and the Mackinac Center Loons love.
In Michigan almost 250,000 more votes were cast for Democrats than for Republicans. Yet, our delegates to the state and national legislatures are a majority of Republicans. Why? Our Congressional and local voting districts have been rigged to guarantee Republican dominance. The incompetent (using his standards of what he intended to accomplish to create more jobs and businesses in MI) Governor may be the only official whose re=election is not pre-determined in the next election.