Two main things can be said about Gov. Rick Snyder’s businesslike and largely successful State of the State speech.
First, it wasn’t filled with uplifting, easily forgettable “vision statements,” the way most such speeches are. It was matter-of-fact, and it covered a lot of ground. It was, in short, the speech of a businessman who considers it his job to make Michigan government work well and efficiently. He aims to identify and resolve problems … and to set up measures of accountability.
Accountability! Since when have we heard that word in the once-hallowed halls of government, where good intentions are usually judged according to their sound and not their results?
The core of the speech was the “Michigan Dashboard,” a website setting out 21 measures of how Michigan is performing on the big-picture subjects: the economy, health and education, quality of life, public safety and “value for government.”
The Dashboard will be updated periodically to give both the public and folks in government an idea of how we stack up against other states — and indicate whether we’re making progress or not
Most importantly, however, it’s a public device to hold public officials accountable for performance. Devices like this are a relatively common business tool, a quick and easy way to see how things are going. The idea is to allow management to focus time and resources on important areas rather than waste energy on largely scattershot approaches.
But when it comes to government, introducing a transparent, updated, publicly available way to judge actual progress — or lack of it –is nothing short of revolutionary. It puts the focus squarely on actual data, benchmarked against other states.
Among other good things, it’ll help eliminate debates in Lansing based on incomplete or inaccurate information, or in many cases, on mere ideology. There is something enormously refreshing about our state’s leading political figure putting a priority on just the facts.
Bottom line: If Snyder wanted to make a qualitative change in the way our state is governed, installing the Michigan Dashboard in the heart of his State of the State speech was a great way to do it.
Snyder didn’t exactly invent this approach but few governors I know of have ever held up such a specific and public mirror by which the public can judge their success. In terms of other such metrics, the Oregon Progress Board has tracked the state’s standing on dozens of quality of life measures for years. and, The Center for Michigan has published since 2008 a “Michigan Scorecard” tracking 29 topics in a similar manner.
No doubt there will be reasonable quibbles about the dashboard’s design. There is little attention paid to the environment. Attendance at state parks is hardly the only good measure of how we’re taking care of our woods and waters. And the value-for-government chart shows Michigan state government operating cost as a percentage of gross state product (the best measure of the size of our economy) without benchmarking it against other states.
But overall, it’s a great step. And it signifies a governor who is interested in how things really are rather than how they might be.
However, where there is no vision, the people perish. And although the governor said he was going to issue future messages on the budget, education and other subjects, he didn’t set out a strategic roadmap to chart Michigan’s route to prosperity.
I think Michigan citizens deserve one, and here’s my suggestion. The first imperative is to get Michigan’s financial house in order. If Snyder does in fact replace the Michigan Business Tax with the corporate tax he‘s been touting, he’ll be facing a deficit in the general fund of something over $3 billion.
One thing he has to do, regardless, is settle once and for all the decade-long problem of our chronic structural budget deficit. For years, our leaders have done nothing but throw accounting gimmicks and one-time fixes at it. Much of that will be addressed in the budget message – which everybody thinks will give new meaning to the word “draconian.” He also is urging adoption of a two-year budget.
Getting that done may take the first two years of Snyder’s term. But what’s next? The governor should know full well that to survive, any company needs a shared vision of its best future.
Only when that vision is fleshed out can a strategic competitive plan be developed. Not till then can any firm identify its key, durable, strategic competitive assets and then launch a sustained program that involves investing in, as well as capitalizing on, those assets.
That business model should be Michigan’s agenda for the second two years of Snyder’s Administration. We have lots of competitive assets – our universities, our environment, the quality of life in our communities. But over the last decade we’ve starved these assets by throwing money piecemeal at all kinds of irrelevant things like tax credits for the film industry. We need a precise and focused plan of investing in the public good that make our state competitive.
What’s fundamental is to have a clear idea of where we’re going and how we get there. That’s what good leaders provide.
And the good news is that so far, that seems to be exactly what our new governor is in the process of doing.
Editor’s Note: Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics. He is also the founder and president of The Center for Michigan, a nonprofit, bipartisan centrist think-and-do tank, designed to cure Michigan’s dysfunctional political culture. The opinions expressed here are Power’s own and do not represent the official views of The Center. He welcomes your comments at ppower@thecenterformichigan.net.
5 Comments
I’d propose an “outcomes” dashboard with just three items on it. (We all know the stories of pilots having 50 instruments but flying the plane with an altimeter, compass and speed indicator.)
1. Per capita income. If most of the people in my state are rich or at least getting richer, all is good.
2. Poverty rates. Really not healthy for democracy if a handful are rich and a lot are poor. At least it didn’t do Marie Antoinette much good.
3. Longevity. If folks are living long lives, you can bet the infant mortality rate is fairly low and obesity is under control.
Now, if you look at the states that are leading in these three basic items, you’ll find they are Connecticut. Massachusetts. California. New York. Minnesota. These are the states we should emulate,
You’ll also find these are not the states that lead in the so-called “business climate” ratings. In other words, a good business climate rating from the Tax Foundation is hazardous to the average person’s health and wallet.
I fear we are accelerating the “no government” policies of the last 20 years, moving closer to the practices of of Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina and Alabama — states that are losers in the “basic outcomes” dashboard. And if we do, you can bet we’ll end up with the same outcomes.
Even looking at Texas — supposedly a “winner” state — is instructive. It’s 24th in per cap income, not a leader. 8th highest poverty rates in the nation. And 30th in longevity.
Why would we want to be Texas, when we could be Minnesota. Second longest lifespan. Fourth lowest poverty rate. And 14th in per cap income …way above Texas. (Oh, and Minnesota’s unemployment rate today is 7.0. Texas: 8.3!)
So…let’s make sure we are using the “outcomes” dashboard in the right way. And don’t be fooled that low taxes or low government will get you the desired outcomes.
I applaud our Governor’s attempt at communicating via a dashboard of twenty-one squiggly lines on a graph. They are indeed easy to look at, most are disturbing, but what exactly do we understand after studying the data?
Percent unemployed, Michigan versus the Nation for example. Yes we have higher unemployment than the rest of the nation. We know that. So? More meaningful jobs are required but all the plotting and scribing of lines and numbers on a graph will not help get us there. You have to dig far deeper and wider in much greater detail in order to get an idea of what can be done to move this number in the right direction. Just how is the private sector doing with diversifying the business base? Is government helping or hindering? How do you measure a “help” or a “hinder”?
A dangerously misleading metric is contained on the Health and Education page, the College Readiness graph comparing ACT scores. Dramatic as it appears this indicator assumes that ACT scores somehow tell us that our children are ready for college. These tests are rooted in the mythology that academics represent intelligence and that a singular paper and pencil test of short term memory and linear thinking can predict college success. If you are brilliant but do not fit the narrow band of cognitive abilities adored by academics you are not capable. You must therefore be stupid. Please tell that to those that are following Einstein’s theories to discover how the Universe works.
Many of the data presented are averages and the graphs are comparisons of those averages. Well, an average is a fictional number, a point in empty space, and we may well conclude that all dashboards are just fictional numbers occupying an empty space. Fifty percent of the numbers are above the average and fifty percent are below the average. So what? They lack meaningful context, the type of context provided in the previous posting.
Sadly these “metrics” are often fictional in their potential for identifying the root cause and how to effect change to move the numbers in the desired direction, and may not have any real meaning at all.
I think those states that Mr Waymire recommends are more bankrupt than Michigan. The per capita income of these states will continue to decline as citizens leave the states. The poverty rates will increase and longevity will decline. Those measures for these recommended states are not static.
To Neil:
Actually, if you look over the last 40 years, you’ll find the states I mentioned have long been higher tax and investments states. And the states that are on the bottom today have been on the bottom for generations, following the same tired, tried and failed philosophies.
Texas started this decade $10,000 per family behind California…and lost 6.1 percent of income this decade.
California started it $10,000 ahead of Texas…and lost only 3.6 percent of income.
The losers are losing faster and faster, and the winners are taking off. What side do you want to be on: Minnesota or Mississippi?
I like the dashboard idea and I do hope it will end up containing timely data. While many of us often complained about Wall Streets focus on the short term there does need to be some short term focus and some rolling forecasts to work with.
An interesting quote from the article that I disagree with. “Among other good things, it’ll help eliminate debates in Lansing based on incomplete or inaccurate information, or in many cases, on mere ideology” They will simply point out the other data we should be measuring and how that data isn’t of interest to their constituents.
I really like Mr Waymire’s metrics. Very concise and clear. Having attended some Business Leaders of Michigan forums it seems they have quite a focus on labor costs. I can certainly understand a bunch of CEO’s, COO’s, CFO’s, etc wanting to reduce labor costs (and Governor Snyder is all about that) but do I want to live and work in a state that prides itself on being a low cost state, do new grads, out of state workers, etc? Are we moving aggressively towards becoming Northern Mississippi?
Harsh economic reality may cause us to make draconian changes in the public work force but does the Governor and some of the more conservative or angry disenfranchised segments of the populace have to revel in it? We may need that firemen, police officer, snow plow driver, etc. By the way, none of them really make that “median wage” being touted. Nor do the park rangers, DNR officers, etc. Governor Snyder’s cabinet does.
As a long time resident I for one want Michigan to be a high labor cost state that offers opportunity to succeed and jobs that are interesting and highly profitable for both employers and employees. That’s my vision, is it the Governor’s?