Snyder aims for state 'turnaround'

Republican Rick Snyder is running for governor, but he sounds more like a guy campaigning to be truth-teller-in-chief.

The word "crisis" peppers his spiel. He says he plans to produce a clear, understandable balance sheet so the public can see just how deep the hole really is for the state and many Michigan localities nearing insolvency. He says he'd use the power of executive orders to reshape state government and make it more responsive to the taxpayers whose dollars fund it.

"This is a turnaround," Snyder said in an interview Thursday. "This is a flat-out turnaround. It's an atmosphere of crisis because we're in a crisis. The problem with people in our state is they don't act like we're in a crisis. We've got to hit the ground running hard."

How hard this CEO and venture capitalist-turned-political neophyte would run as governor isn't exactly clear. But it should be, and soon, because he's up roughly 20 percentage points in the polls on Democrat Virg Bernero, the mayor of Lansing backed predominantly by organized labor interests.

Snyder sounds like a politician with a clear agenda -- fix the state's broken budgeting, improve economic development efforts, revamp the punitive Michigan Business Tax, deliver some early wins to lift a depressed collective psyche that's been down so long just about anything looks like up.

He also sounds like a newcomer trying to avoid the same old traps of Michigan politics -- labor vs. management, Republican vs. Democrat, Metro Detroit vs. Outstate Michigan -- because he's convinced that polarization is one of the biggest problems besetting Lansing, a looming obstacle to getting the state off its knees.

Which is why he thinks working to overcome that paralyzing polarization, exacerbated by the weak leadership of budget showdowns, corporate defections and anti-business policy-making, is one of the voters' top priorities. Whatever you think of the guy's pedigree -- lawyer, accountant, CEO, corporate director, venture capitalist and self-described nerd -- he's not a creature of the usual political machines.

Nor does he ascribe, rhetorically at least, to the common dodge of politicians: Spin the positive and bury the negative. His plan to publish a simple, but detailed, balance sheet to expose the financial challenges facing Michigan should drain blood from the heads of career politicians and the special interests feeding at the public trough. (Think billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, for one.)

"That helps set up a lot of this stuff because we've spent beyond our means," Snyder says. "We're on a path where hundreds to thousands of our municipalities are on a path to potentially going insolvent."

The trouble is that saying the right stuff and actually delivering are two very different things. Whether filled with fresh new ideas or the same old ones, the next governor won't be king. He'll have to work with the Legislature, parry special interests, manage the status quo, choose which battles to fight -- and which ones to avoid.

Campaign to make Michigan a right-to-work state? Too "divisive," he says, a position he'll need to keep defending to folks on his side of the aisle. Work China for job-creating investment in Michigan? "I wouldn't avoid China at all," he says, "which has been the attitude."

This past chairman of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. continues, riffing on his own development philosophy: "I want to get to more gardening versus hunting. Business 101 is ... if you have customer issues, do you spend your time making current customers happy or do you go out looking for new customers?"

Translation: Political energy spent improving the business environment of taxes, regulation and government responsiveness at home -- the "gardening" part -- should a) bolster the existing community of employers, which b) is more likely to attract new employers.

Snyder's right, of course. So are the skeptics because the challenges are immense: Declining property values mean declining tax revenue. Leaner automakers and revised labor contracts contribute to per-capita income that is now 37th in the nation and falling. Public employee costs are rising even as state revenues fall. A reformed business tax has proven to be a mess, and Michigan's regulatory thicket remains uncompetitive.

A turnaround? You got that right, Rick. A big one.

dchowes@detnews.com">dchowes@detnews.com Daniel Howes' column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.