Did Gov. Snyder Hit the Mark In His 7th State of the State Address?

Do you think Snyder gave Flint enough attention? Was there a topic he missed?

Jake Neher/WDET

Last night, Gov. Rick Snyder delivered his annual State of the State speech.

Snyder talked a lot about the economy and jobs, but spoke somberly of the work left to be done with the Flint water crisis and failing infrastructure throughout the state. 

Detroit Today Host Stephen Henderson speaks with Matt Friedman of the Tanner Friedman PR Firm and Nancy Derringer, a reporter for Bridge Magazine, about their major takeaways from the speech.

Friedman says that Snyder was light on substance throughout his speech and refrained from giving specifics about policies that will unfold in the upcoming year. Friedman also feels that the governor should have brought up the Flint water crisis earlier, and spent more time discussing possible resolutions.

“The Flint water crisis is still a crisis,” says Friedman. “And for him not to acknowledged that until halfway through his speech was a mistake… it was 7:34 by the time he mentioned Flint.”

Derringer says, in Flint, “they’re trudging towards a solution there. They are one-by-one opening the hole, replacing the service lines. It’s just really slow going and they are still piecing the money together too.” Yet, during the governors speech on Tuesday, it was seldom discussed how the state will pay for and fix the various infrastructure problems, says Derringer.

Ahead of the speech, a number of listeners sent WDET questions they hoped Gov. Snyder would address. The panel discusses some of those questions and listens to some of what Snyder had to say about those topics. 

Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.

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    Dynamic and diverse voices. News, politics, community and the issues that define our region. Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Henderson, Detroit Today brings you fresh and perceptive views weekdays at 9 am and 7 pm.