By Kathy Barks Hoffman
Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Saying he's "chomping at the bit" to get his administration under way, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder named a new director of military and veterans affairs Monday and word leaked out he will move to appoint Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan to the state's welfare agency later this week.
Snyder declined to tell reporters who will head the Department of Human Services, but Corrigan's role was confirmed Monday by a person who's familiar with leadership changes at DHS and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Corrigan, who has a deep interest in child protection and foster care issues, likely would leave the court by Jan. 14, according to the source. Her move would give Snyder the opportunity to appoint a new justice to the court, which returned to a 4-3 GOP majority when Justices Robert Young and Mary Beth Kelly were sworn in during Saturday's inauguration.
Snyder named former state budget director Duane Berger as acting DHS director last week.
On Monday, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs announced the governor had named Maj. Gen. Gregory J. Vadnais as its new director and adjutant general.
Vadnais joined the Michigan Army National Guard in 1970 and retired in 2005 as commander of the Indiana Army National Guard's 38th Infantry Division. Vadnais will replace Maj. Gen. Thomas Cutler, who was appointed adjutant general by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2003.
Snyder intends to move fast, saying he'll move up the annual State of the State address to mid-January and have most of his policies in place within six months. He has set a July 1 deadline for lawmakers to pass a two-year budget and reminded senior staff at a Monday morning meeting that he's in a hurry to take steps he says will lead to more jobs and a balanced budget.
"We've all prepared for this for months," he said. "This is our opportunity to really roll up our sleeves and get to work."
The governor said he has several executive orders "in the pipeline" that he'll issue this week, including ones formalizing some of his organizational moves such as splitting the departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality.
Among the more than a dozen senior advisers at the meeting was Jeff Barnes, Snyder's former campaign manager who was just appointed deputy chief of staff. Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, director of strategy William Rustem and legislative affairs adviser Dick Posthumus also attended.
Snyder met separately later in the day with budget director John Nixon and Michael Finney, the new head of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
The state general fund has a projected $1.85 billion deficit for the budget year that starts Oct. 1, and that amount will grow if Snyder gets his way and business taxes are reduced in the next fiscal year. Snyder and lawmakers will need to come up with spending cuts or some other way to deal with the shortfall.
The new governor has not laid out any specifics for what his budget plan will look like but said he's examining tax exemptions to see if some should be eliminated. He also has said repeatedly that public employees will have to make sacrifices, likely by paying a larger share of their health care costs or by seeing benefits reduced.
The independently wealthy Republican still isn't saying how much he plans to take in salary. He told reporters Monday that the amount will be less than $159,300 salary set in 2009 after the State Officers Compensation Committee cut of the pay for top elected officials and legislators by 10 percent. He'll announce the amount "at an appropriate time," he said.
Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm voluntarily gave back 5 percent of her $177,000 annual salary until the 10 percent cut took effect in 2009.
Published: Wed, Jan 5, 2011
