About half of local leaders in Michigan think the state is on the right track, and that Governor Snyder is doing a good job. That's according to a survey released today by the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan.
The governor's approval rating rose more than ten points compared to a year ago. Tom Ivacko is the program manager for the Center. He says partisan leanings do factor into opinions about the governor's performance, "but even so what we found in the last year is increasing percentages also of independents and of Democrats believing that the state's headed in the right direction, and that the governor's doing a good job."
In 2011, 37 percent of local leaders rated Snyder's performance as "good" or "excellent." But Ivacko says at that time Snyder was a newcomer to politics, and an unknown quantity.
"And now that it's a year later and he has a track record - and a fairly bold track record of policy reform in Lansing - what we see now is increasing optimism."
Approval ratings for state lawmakers remain low. Just 27 percent of local officials give the Legislature high marks. A third of them rate state lawmakers as "poor."
