NEGAUNEE -- Governor Rick Snyder struck a bi-partisan tone in his State of the State address Wednesday. He called for Republicans and Democrats to work across the aisle in solving some of the state's more pressing problems including fixing Michigan's roads and creating more jobs.
Governor Snyder's speech included a plan to invest $1.2 billion a year to improve Michigan's roads. The money would come from what he calls a fair and simple user fee. It would come from an increase in vehicle registration fees and a gas tax increase at the wholesale level.
"Every family in Michigan would decide to do the road project, that's something we need to think hard about, so we can decide how long we want to argue about it, how political we want to make it, or we can just use some common sense and get it done," said Snyder.
We invited Northern Michigan University's college Democrat and Republican presidents to watch the speech. Republican Justin Bis says the Governor's proposals should help Upper Michigan.
"If we continue to invest in the infrastructure, and Governor Snyder has been a pretty good fiscal manager, and by paying down our debt, we will be able to afford more for infrastructure and education up here in the Upper Peninsula," said Bis.
But many Democrats remain skeptical about the Governor's priorities.
"We saw corporate tax rates go down, but at what cost? At a cost to our seniors and to our teachers; there are classrooms in the state of Michigan where the class size has gone up significantly. There's been cuts to education. I would say that a success would be to put more money toward education," said college Democratic President Drew Janego.
Governor Snyder also said he wants to reform the state's no fault auto insurance system. He said unlimited benefits and the lack of cost controls have made car insurance too expensive for many residents.
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