HOLLAND, MI (WHTC) – Several State Representative shave weighed in on Governor Rick Snyder’s State of the State address, including second-term Republican Daniela Garcia.
In an appearance on “WHTC Morning News” on Wednesday, Garcia said that Mr. Snyder’s tone was different from last year and a bit more somber, “because of some of the emergency situations we had to tackle like the Flint water crisis. I thought he did a great job of talking about the 480,000 jobs we’ve created since 2010 with 116,00 of those are manufacturuing jobs.
“We are the manufacturing state. We have 38 counties who cut unemployment by half and he highlighted two which have under three percent unemployment … one of those counties is us (Ottawa).”
Garcia says there are three issues that will come out of the budget plan to the legislature in a few weeks: Infrastructure, opioid abuse and education … in particular skilled trades. The Republican from Holland’s North Side added that parents, the business community and educators need to get involved earlier in the discussion about the trade industry.
“You know I’ve long said if you’re going to put STEM Education in the classrom you can’t in middle school even, you can’t start in high school, you have to start in elementary school top expose students to these kinds of careers,” the member of the House Education Committee remarked. “That’s where the business community comes in. Open up your doors like the Governor was saying. Our area is every good about that.”
Snyder didn’t unveil any major new policy initiatives, which came as a surprise to many in attendance.
