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Governor: State’s come a long way

Haley Gustafson | Daily Press At left, Jace Moker, whose steer was named grand champion at the Beef Cattle Junior Show, is congratulated by Gov. Rick Synder, right, while Ed McBroom, a former state representative, middle, looks on Thursday afternoon during the governor’s visit to the Upper Peninsula State Fair in Escanaba.

ESCANABA — Governor Rick Snyder was in Escanaba Thursday discussing the continuing improvement of the state, challenges facing Michiganders, and what the future holds for Michigan during a special luncheon held in his honor at the U.P. State Fair.

“We’ve made huge progress in this state. We were the most broken state in the nation. We were 50 out of 50 in everything from the number of jobs we had, to our unemployment rate, to every kind of problem you can imagine,” Snyder told guests of the annual governor’s luncheon. “The part that I’m really proud to report to you today is Michigan is now a top 10 state in most of those numbers.”

According to Snyder, Michigan is now the number one state in the nation for manufacturing growth, as well as the number one state in the Great Lakes region for both private sector job growth over the last six years and personal income growth. On the national stage, Michigan is ranked sixth for private sector income growth and seventh for personal income growth.

The state has also had a major turn-around when it comes to attracting and keeping Millennials. Not long ago, the state was experiencing a phenomenon known as “brain drain,” where young, college-educated individuals leave for job prospects in other states. Now, Snyder says that the state is growing faster than the national average when it comes to the population of 25 to 34 year olds in the state.

However, there are things that Snyder claims Michigan needs to work on to make Michigan all that it can be in the coming years.

“For every good thing about being now in the top 10 or number one in some field, the last thing we should do is be complacent or content with what we’ve achieved, because it’s not good enough. We could do better,” he said.

Snyder told luncheon guests, while he could see excitement and progress in many U.P. communities, other communities aren’t experiencing the same level of success. He says that it is up to Michiganders to extend help to other communities by sharing expertise and experience and putting aside any grudges or rivalries communities have with each other.

He highlighted the work of programs like the Rising Tide, which offered 10 communities across Michigan with assistance in developing new strategies to increase economic prosperity, and the newly formed InvestUP, a U.P.-specific economic development initiative. While InvestUP aims to help all U.P. communities, communities that participated in the Rising Tide program were asked to assist other communities once they had completed the program.

“This is about neighbors helping neighbors. This isn’t about the government doing all of this. This is people helping one another,” said Snyder.

Snyder also spoke about the importance of giving Michigan’s youth a leg-up for finding a career through the advancement of technical education and career counseling. One idea he mentioned, was the creation of career exploration classes at the sixth and eighth grade level. These classes would give kids an opportunity to begin thinking of careers, including those in skilled trades, before trade and college prep classes begin at the high school level.

“We’ve got a lot of openings out there that are not being filled because people don’t have the skills,” said Snyder of skilled trades jobs. “I need young people, I need parents, I need all of us to support them and understand that these are great careers. Being a welder, being a carpenter … we need to treat those professions the same way we treat a doctor, lawyer, dentist; anyone else. They’ve earned it.”

While not a topic of his speech at the luncheon, Snyder discussed another challenge facing Michigan during an interview at the Daily Press Thursday morning — opioids.

“It’s a huge national problem, but it’s a crisis here in Michigan and we just need to acknowledge it and be honest about it,” he said.

On Tuesday, Snyder signed an executive directive establishing the Council on Opioid and Prescription Drug Enforcement (COPE). The council aims to reduce and prevent prescription drug and opoid abuse across the state, and will develop and maintain relationships between local, state, and federal agencies charged with enforcing laws and regulations.

Snyder also praised the work of the Delta County Task Force Against Substance Abuse to address the issue of addiction.

“It’s gone so well and so impressive that MSP is actually taking it and trying to roll it out to other parts of the state and we hope to get it statewide,” he said.

Despite the challenges that face Michigan, Snyder felt it was possible for Michiganders to continue making the state better if they were willing to work at it.

“I hope you’re fired up today to come out of here and say, ‘It’s about the Upper Peninsula. It’s about being a Michigander.’ That we’re going to keep working hard — no complacency, no contentment — we’ve got a vision of what we’re going to do, were’ going to get it done, and we’re going to build a better platform — not for the next year or two, not for the next four or eight years, but for the next couple generations,” he said.

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