Snyder focused on bottom line during his first year

By Kathy Barks Hoffman Associated Press LANSING (AP) -- Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder may have added a bit of political polish during his first year in office, but the former businessman at heart remains an accountant focused on improving the state's bottom line. The man who ran as "one tough nerd" took large steps this year to eliminate state debt, shaving billions of dollars off future health care and retirement commitments, scaling back tax breaks for retirees and low-income workers, ending welfare benefits for 11,000 families, whacking more than $1 billion out of state spending and cutting business taxes by a similar amount. He acknowledges some of the measures have been hard for retirees, local governments, public schools, universities and low-income residents who have had to make sacrifices under his policies. But the Republican governor said he's certain those measures were needed to turn around the state's struggling economy and ongoing budget deficits, now and for decades to come. "We've done a lot of balance-sheet reform in Michigan. Long term, it makes a huge difference," he told the Associated Press in a year-end interview. "At the same time, it's about jobs today." He expects hiring to pick up once his new corporate income tax takes effect Jan. 1 that frees two-thirds of companies in the state from business taxes. And he points to Fitch Ratings' decision in July to revise its outlook for Michigan bonds from stable to positive as evidence that others are starting to note Michigan's new willingness to tackle its longstanding financial woes. Still, a lot of voters have reservations about the former computer executive and venture capitalist. Just 37 percent gave Snyder a positive job rating in a mid-November EPIC-MRA poll, while 59 percent gave him a negative rating and 4 percent were undecided. Fifty-four percent said Michigan is on the wrong track, while only a third said it was headed in the right direction and 13 percent were undecided. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Snyder's most unpopular move may be the new law he championed giving emergency managers sweeping powers to strip control from elected officials and void union contracts in the cities or school districts they oversee. An effort is under way to give voters a chance to overturn the law next November and anger is building in Detroit over a possible emergency manager appointment there. But while his policies prompted months of protests at the Capitol by seniors, teachers and unions, Snyder in his first year has largely avoided bare-knuckled confrontations that have plagued his Republican counterparts in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. An effort to get enough petition signatures for a Snyder recall election failed, although one of the GOP lawmakers pushing the governor's education changes was recalled in November. The governor recently met with United Auto Workers President Bob King to finalize contracts with unionized state workers and has spoken positively about Democratic President Barack Obama's federal auto bailout. Nonetheless, Democrats say they've seen little evidence of the bipartisanship the governor talked about when he came into office. Only a handful of bills sponsored by them got passed, and Democratic leaders usually aren't included in Snyder's weekly meetings with the GOP House speaker and Senate majority leader who control the Legislature. When Oakland County Republican commissioners were unhappy with a redistricting map drawn up a bipartisan panel, Snyder signed a bill handing them the power to redraw the map themselves, even though they'd lost a court challenge to the panel's redistricting plan. Democrats called it a "power grab" that violated the separation of powers. Despite those examples, the governor says he's more interested in what's good for Michigan than in politics. He's called for raising taxes so the state can fix its crumbling roads and for setting up an exchange where individuals and small businesses could shop for health insurance, neither of which is popular with many Republicans. He delivered policy initiatives on ways to improve local government, education, infrastructure, health and wellness and connecting workers and jobs, and plans to address public safety and energy and the environment in two initiatives next year. "2011 had to be a large policy year," he said. For 2012, "the intensity of the work won't change ... but in terms of the amount of policy items, it should be dramatically less." He still faces an uphill fight to get GOP lawmakers to authorize the building of a new international bridge spanning the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. It's likely House Republicans will be reluctant in an election year to raise the $1.4 billion in new taxes he's requested to pump up road and bridge projects, or to back the state health insurance exchange that's part of a federal health care law they oppose. He also could get a push from both Democrats and Republicans to spend more freely if state revenues increase, a move the former accountant is sure to resist until the economy becomes more solid. Despite the challenges, Snyder considers 2011 a "very productive year" and expects more of the same in 2012. "We didn't spend time fighting with people. We stayed focused on solutions," he said. "Most of it worked pretty well." Published: Fri, Dec 30, 2011