In the two weeks of Michigan campaigning before packing up his tent and moving the circus to Ohio and parts South, Mitt Romney warned that the application of his Massachusetts health-care overhaul at the federal level would consume that part of America’s soul the auto bailout hadn’t already devoured. Gov. Rick Snyder didn’t offer a […]
Peter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
The 'tough nerd' sidesteps a fight
For all the talk, from Clint Eastwood on down, that Michigan is turning the corner, Gov. Rick Snyder’s new budget fails to match the moment. Instead, the administration has agreed to play “small ball” with Republican lawmakers worried about re-election prospects. This budget appears to be carefully crafted to protect GOP House incumbents in 2012. […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Capitol conundrum: Fewer inmates, same high costs
Round numbers can provoke course corrections because they are easier to understand and, if large enough, shock the system. Here are a couple: 50,000 and $2 billion. The first is the inmate population barrier breached at the Michigan Department of Corrections in 2006. The department’s budget first exceeded the latter figure in fiscal year 2008. […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Snyder's message wasn't friendly to Capitol majority
Gov. Rick Snyder may not be a typical politician, but he’s also no fool. With fresh good news to share in his second State of the State address before a statewide television audience, Snyder led with it. And he invited Republican lawmakers in the House chambers to take credit for the positive unemployment report released […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Snyder will dance with social conservatives in 2012
Gov. Rick Snyder’s quest to reinvent Michigan apparently won’t be extended to his own Republican Party. Given the chance to confirm the suspicions of cultural conservatives that he’s a different kind of Republican far more concerned with rebuilding the economy than deploying government force to advance a social agenda, Snyder punted at the end of […]