Citing Flint Water, Detroit-Area Sinkhole, Snyder Calls for Addressing Infrastructure

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Jan. 17 called for addressing Michigan’s aging infrastructure over the next several decades, citing the Flint water crisis that has roiled his administration and a football field-sized sinkhole that formed recently in suburban Detroit.

In his seventh annual State of the State address to lawmakers, the Republican also touted the state’s Medicaid expansion, which has provided health insurance to 600,000 low-income adults but which is in jeopardy as the GOP-led Congress seeks to repeal the federal health care law.

“We need to let them know that Healthy Michigan is a model that can work for the rest of the country,” said Snyder, who was to meet with members of Congress on Jan. 19 to defend the program.

He did not say how to raise the additional $4 billion that a state infrastructure commission has said is needed annually. But to start, he said, there should be better coordination so local road, sewer and fiber-optic cable projects are done simultaneously to save money.

“We’re at risk in every corner of Michigan from our aging infrastructure,” Snyder said.

The Republican was not expected to unveil major policy initiatives in his speech to a joint session of the GOP-controlled Legislature. It came a year after he was forced to mainly focus on Flint’s lead-contaminated water in his sixth yearly address amid withering criticism over his administration’s failures that caused and prolonged the man-made public health emergency.

Elevated lead levels had been detected in children, and people had died in a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak. While water quality is improving in Flint, residents continue to use faucet filters or bottled water nearly three years after the fateful switch of Flint water while the city was under state management.

“We’re making progress, but our work is not done yet,” said Snyder, who has committed to fixing the crisis.

Earlier, he touted Michigan’s economic turnaround, pointing to the addition of nearly 500,000 private-sector jobs since 2010, an unemployment rate below 5 percent and higher personal incomes.