Michigan voters have been duped. The 2010 gubernatorial election may have been one of the biggest bait and switch cases in the history of the state of Michigan.
Rick Snyder's ads claimed "He's the only businessman running so he's the only one that even knows what he's doing." Business 101 suggests that if you want people to invest in your ideas you will need a business plan and as the Small Business Association sums up that plan should include research and predications:
"Your business plan is critical. Be sure to include accurate and realistic financials and market research to back up your predictions. Plan on being able to confidently communicate key sound bites from your plan on the fly—particularly how you will generate profit and how that will flow into your investor’s pockets."
Well the voters of the state of Michigan invested in Rick Snyder's business prowess yet here we are two years into his first term and none of the legislation the governor has signed into law smacks off the data driven-thorough analysis one would expect from a venture capitalist.
When asked to estimate the jobs that will be created from the corporate tax cuts the governor championed, he stated: "Can we quantify all the numbers? No. But we know it's going to happen.”
Rick Snyder continues to support an emergency manager law that the voters roundly rejected despite the fact that what data exists to analyze the success or failure of emergency managers in Michigan shows that nearly every entity taken over by a state appointed manager has left it worse than they found it.
When pressed on his rationale for signing right to work legislation in Michigan the governor sounded like one bullied nerd stuck in third grade with a "they started it" claim against unions and a "All the other kids were doing it" defense in pretending Indiana had become a draw because of right to work despite reports to the contrary.
When it comes to education the governor has hit the trifecta of unsupported solutions. It starts with privatizing schools even though data shows no value to doing so. Next he formed a secret group, known as "skunk works", tasked to skirting the Michigan constitution’s prohibition of vouchers. But perhaps his worst education decision so far is the Educational Achievement Authority (EAA). Not only does this entity operate outside of normal statewide school district system meaning it can use state funds without being forced to reveal how these funds are being allocated or who benefits, but it has no data to support its existence or the expansion the legislature is currently planning. And according to the Mackinac Center it would allow the state to take over more than just the lowest achieving schools as the governor claims.
So while Michiganders may have expected Rick Snyder to provide an independent analytical voice and solve Michigan's problems by "thinking outside the box" to find some "cutting edge" "game changers" that supply a good "return on investment" while creating "synergy" within the various government agencies in a "win-win" for the public, the reality Rick Snyder governance is more of a faith based initiative requiring voters to reject reason and facts and instead rely on Rick Snyder's usual aplomb.
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