LANSING, MI – Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s popularity ratings were abysmal when he left office on New Year’s Day. Yet there’s a good chance that he — and what he managed to accomplish –will be remembered far more favorably in the long run.
That’s not true today. Had he been able to run for a third term, something made impossible by Michigan’s term limits law, he might not even have been able to win his party’s nomination. His approval ratings have been abysmal since the Flint water crisis.
Worse, with the exception of various chambers of commerce and some other parts of the business community, the 60-year-old Snyder departed without having the support of any major group:
The right wing of his own Republican party felt he had often betrayed them, especially on social issues.
Moderates and some Democrats who had supported him when he was first elected turned against him when he enacted a tax on pensions and then signed legislation making Michigan, the home of the United Auto Workers union, a right-to-work state.
The elderly in both parties were incensed when he taxed their pensions to give business a tax break – and the education community got angry when he cut their spending for the same reason.
Environmentalists, who initially thought the governor was one of them, felt repeatedly betrayed, most recently when he signed legislation last week that forbids the state to set stronger standards for environmental regulations than the federal government.
But worst of all, of course, was the defining disaster of his administration: Flint. Nobody gives Rick Snyder high marks for his initial handling of the lead poisoning of an entire city.
The bottom line was that he appointed emergency managers for that impoverished town who, to cut corners, switched the city to a tainted water source and neglected to add a simple chemical to the water to prevent Flint’s old lead pipes from corroding.
Snyder, much like Ronald Reagan in the Iran-Contra crisis, simply wasn’t keeping an eye on things. He then destroyed his political future by being very slow to react to residents’ concerns and scientific findings, and waiting months to take any action or fire anyone responsible. Nor did he seem emphatic to the victims.
He later apologized, and rushed aid to Flint, but permanent damage had been done to his reputation.
Flint became a huge national story – and any talk of Snyder as a potential presidential candidate or even a cabinet member died.
He became largely estranged from his fellow Republicans increased when he refused to endorse either Donald Trump in 2016 or Bill Schuette, the 2018 GOP nominee for governor.
But Rick Snyder did score a number of very real accomplishments in his eight years in office – including two huge things that probably no other governor could have done:
- A badly needed new span – the Gordie Howe International Bridge — will soon be rising over the Detroit River linking Michigan and Ontario, something that nearly all business interests realize is essential to the economy of both Canada and the United States.
For years, the only way to move billions of dollars in heavy manufacturing components has been the now-ancient Ambassador Bridge, completed in 1930, in dubious repair and by no means suitable for today’s heavy tractor-trailers.
But its owner, Matty Moroun, managed to prevent another from being built, largely by making fat campaign contributions to legislators. Snyder, who is independently wealthy and immune to Moroun’s money, found an ingenious way to conclude an “interlocal” agreement with Canada to get the bridge built.
- Detroit, which had enormous debt and pension liabilities, would eventually have plunged into emergency management and bankruptcy, regardless of who was governor or mayor. But thanks to Snyder’s brilliant overseeing of the process, the Motor City’s experience was as stunningly successful as Flint’s was a horror show.
Kevyn Orr proved to be the ideal emergency manager, and partnered with the governor and new Mayor Mike Duggan to eliminate most of the city’s debt while preserving most of city workers’ pensions, though the pensioners did lose some money.
The city’s great cultural institutions, most notably the world-renowned Detroit Institute of Arts, also survived threats of being broken up and their treasures sold to pay creditors.
Snyder was also given great credit by some for the state’s economic comeback, though in many respects, the lion’s share of the thanks was likely due to the improving national economy, and President Obama’s saving of the auto industry itself.
But the governor did tackle and reduce the state’s long-term debt and replace the hated Michigan Business Tax with one that is aimed at rewarding investment and job creation.
He managed, with the help of then-Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) to persuade the legislature to accept the federal government’s Medicaid expansion offer, which resulted in 680,000 previously uninsured, low-income Michiganders having health insurance, meaning a healthier work force.
Snyder also tried hard to “just fix the damn roads,” but was defeated by obstinate right-wing lawmakers who refused to raise the necessary revenue to repair them, despite clear evidence that not fixing the roads was costing the state far more
In the end, Richard Dale Snyder proved to be basically a conservative on most economic matters; a moderate otherwise.
He was anything but perfect. But, as Detroit News editorial page editor Nolan Finley observed, he never stooped to gutter politics.
“He was unique in his constant civility. We never heard the governor engage in a personal attack …” something rare in today’s politics. Finley thinks Snyder’s reputation will gradually improve, and that he left the state a better place than it was.
And, except for Flint and the roads, that may largely be true.
