Poll: Half of 's local officials say state on the wrong track 15 August 2011

Half of the local government officials surveyed in . Michigan say the state is generally on the wrong track, while 32 percent think the state is going the Local officials are divided about Snyder's job right way, a new poll says. performance, with 37 percent rating him as good or excellent and 22 percent giving him a poor rating, Democratic officials were most likely to be critical the survey says. Unsurprisingly, Republicans are of the state's direction. But even among local more supportive of Snyder, but only a bare majority Republican officials, fewer than half (46 percent) of them (52 percent) say his performance was believe the state is going the right way, the poll either good or excellent. says. Despite the dissatisfaction, Snyder's approval The statewide survey was conducted as part of the levels are higher than those reported near the end ongoing Michigan Public Policy Survey by U-M's of Granholm's tenure in a CLOSUP survey in fall Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy 2009. At that time, 52 percent of the local officials (CLOSUP) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public thought Granholm was doing a poor job, compared Policy. with only 22 percent giving Snyder a poor performance rating. "Local governments are key players in implementing state-level policy decisions, so this "The gridlock that dominated Lansing toward the high level of concern about the state's direction end of Gov. Granholm's tenure has been replaced among local officials should be on the radar for the by one-party Republican control and a stream of and state legislators," said Brian Jacob, significant policy changes," Jacob said. "While local professor of public policy and director of CLOSUP. officials think state policymakers are doing a better job now than in 2009, a majority of them also think "Local officials know the conditions on the ground, the state is heading in the wrong direction. I where the policy rubber meets the road, so their suspect their views on the state's direction are tied views can provide important guidance to state to their views of the high profile policy changes policymakers. Ideally we would see a higher level coming out of Lansing." of alignment in the views of our state and local policymakers." Local officials are also critical of the state legislature. Only 21 percent of the officials rate its In the first half of 2011, significant policy changes performance as either good or excellent, while 36 have reshaped the relationship between percent say it's poor. Michigan's state and local governments. Major developments include the new emergency The poll, conducted from April 18 to June 10, manager law and revenue sharing changes to involved online and hardcopy surveys sent to the incentivize local government reform. top elected and appointed officials in all counties, cities, villages and townships in Michigan. A total of "This study finds mixed-reactions among 1,272 jurisdictions returned valid surveys, resulting Michigan's local government leaders to these in a 69 percent response rate. The margin of error changes," Jacob said. was plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

There was also a change in the governor's office, More information: closup.umich.edu/ with Republican Rick Snyder replacing Democrat

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Provided by University of Michigan APA citation: Poll: Half of Michigan's local officials say state on the wrong track (2011, August 15) retrieved 27 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2011-08-poll-michigan-local-state-wrong.html

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