EDITORIAL: Gov. Snyder’s Road To Recovery

IN THE T.V.  advertisement released by the Snyder campaign last week, Gov. Snyder assures voters that Michigan is on the “road to recovery.” Those who have not felt the recovery will feel it soon, he says. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual report on child poverty in the U.S., released in July 2014, might be used to reasonably to argue that Gov. Snyder’s road to recovery is pitted with giant potholes.

The 2014 Annie E. Casey report revealed worsening conditions for Michigan’s children and families. Michigan has had a spike in child poverty rates by a whopping 6 percent, which jumped from 19 to 25 percent since 2005. In addition, children living in high-poverty areas also increased, doubling 8 to 16 percent since 2000.

According to the Kids Count Data Center indicator selections, Michigan children in low-income working families have increased from 18 percent in 2007 to 21 percent since 2012 – and kids with neither parent in the workforce has crept up since 2007 by 2 percent.

While Gov. Snyder may characterize Michigan as on the road to recovery, childhood poverty is a key indicator of a state’s overall economic well-being, more so even than a “balanced budget,” which the Gov.’s television ad says he has achieved for the previous four years. The state’s constitution requires a balanced budget. Gov. Snyder promised job creation when he ran in 2010. Since November 2010, the state has added approximately 150,000 individuals to the workforce, according to the U.S. Department of Labor data.

The jump in childhood poverty as well as the increase in the number of working poor in Michigan are related to the kinds of jobs being created. Of those 150,000 additional individuals in the workforce, one-third of them work in the Leisure and Hospitality sector and are paid one of the lowest average hourly wages.