UM survey: 67% of government leaders say Michigan headed in wrong direction
(The Center Square) – More than two-thirds of local government officials say Michigan has “gotten off on the wrong track,” says the University of Michigan’s 2021 Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS).
COVID-19, economic challenges, an alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and public policy choices have complicated an already difficult year, according to the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) at U-M’s Ford School of Public Policy, which conducts the MPPS every spring.
“The last year has brought significant challenges for our state, its communities and citizens, including many impacts from the historic pandemic,” CLOSUP Director Tom Ivacko said in a statement. “Local leaders across Michigan are telling us that state leaders haven’t met these challenges yet, and as a state we’re heading in the wrong direction today.”
Key findings:
Statewide, 67% of local government officials say Michigan has gotten off on the wrong track — the highest level of pessimism reported since tracking began in 2011. Just 23% say the state is generally going in the right direction, a record low number.Views correlate with partisan identification, though all participants gave declining assessments of the state’s direction.Among self-identified Republican local leaders, just 10% say the state is going in the right direction, down from 26% last year. Of Independents, 24% believe the state is headed in the right direction, down from 39% in 2020. About 63% of Democrats remain optimistic about the state’s direction, down from last year’s high of 72%.Whitmer’s job performance evaluations have also fallen sharply in the past year. Nearly half (48%) of Michigan’s local officials rate her performance in 2021 as poor, compared to 31% in 2020. About 30% currently rate her performance as either excellent or good, down from 39% last year. Democrat local leaders rank Whitmer’s performance as good or excellent compared with 41% of Independents and 10% of Republicans.All parties rated low the Michigan legislature’s performance. Statewide, 40% of local leaders say the legislature is doing a poor job, compared to 19% who said the same in 2020. Only 14% say its performance is either excellent or good — the lowest ratings for the legislature since tracking of these views began.Just 15% of Republicans say the legislature is doing an excellent or good job, in line with assessments by Independents (12%) and Democrats (15%).However, local leaders are optimistic about the direction local government is headed.
The 2021 survey gathered information during April and May through its census survey of 1,856 general-purpose local governments statewide.
MPPS project manager Debra Horner said, “even though local leaders across the state report that their individual communities tend to be on the right track, the current pessimism about the direction of both Michigan and the U.S. is widespread.”
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