LANSING – In accepting victory, Governor-elect Rick Snyder on Tuesday called for the state to end the Michigan Business Tax, but also to protect its natural resources and rebuild its central cities, especially Detroit. Could that put him into some conflict with a Republican Legislature elected by voters “taking a baseball bat to the establishment?”

Michigan’s election results in many respects replicated those across the nation. Just as the U.S. House went GOP, so did the Michigan House. While the GOP did not quite win control of the U.S. Senate, it put a hammerlock on control of the Michigan Senate.

As Republican candidates across the nation lauded their victories as a voter rejection of Democratic politics and promised to enact tough new fiscal controls, Snyder gave a more expansive, inclusive address that almost skipped even using the word Republican in it.

One Democratic analyst said he questioned whether some Republican conservatives would put pressure on Snyder.

A Republican analyst did not say there would necessarily be conflict between Snyder and legislative Republicans. But both would have to heed the voter demand to significantly restructure government, cut taxes and spending.

Snyder can follow former Governor John Engler, said Republican strategist Greg McNeilly. “Rick Snyder can be Engler with a softer voice,” he said.

Snyder certainly adopted a softer voice in his victory comments, which reincorporated but also re-emphasized much of his campaign rhetoric.

Where Rand Paul, the newly elected Republican senator from Kentucky, said, “We’ve come to take our government back,” and that he would carry a “message of fiscal sanity. It’s a message of limited – limited – constitutional government, and balanced budgets,” Snyder said his victory showed it was “time to stop being negative and to start being positive,” and that it was a time “to start being inclusive and win together as Michiganders.”

In his comments, Snyder largely gave his standard stump speech, and it could be seen as a signal that, while he understands the critical fiscal issues the state faces, he would not give up on those issues he considered critical to the state’s future.

He repeated his call to repeal the Michigan Business Tax and to replace it with a 6 percent business income tax, to great applause. Aside from comments about the hard work facing the state, it was the only direct comment to the tax and spending issues that Republicans across the state and nation ran on.

Instead, Snyder said the state had to reinvent itself as the state of innovation using a “clear, positive vision for Michigan’s future.”

The state had to protect its resources, in fact work harder to protect its natural resources, he said.

The state had to take steps to create a positive, creative environment to keep young people in Michigan, he said.

And, “this is a tougher topic,” it was critical Michigan “restore our central cities,” especially Detroit, he said.

It is, of course, far too early to project how Snyder and legislative Republicans will work together. But McNeilly said the margin and scope of Republican wins shows that any Republican would have defeated Democrat Virg Bernero as easily.

Snyder will have to keep in mind that the voters have “taken a baseball bat to the establishment,” and any goals he might have to add money to higher education and community mental health (both of which he pointed out during the campaign could use more funding) could only come after substantial restructuring of state government.

Cutting taxes and spending is the issue that voters demanded both the Legislature and Congress enact, McNeilly said, and the voters will not take objection to losing services to meet that goal.

“It is the duty of every Republican officeholder” to focus on that agenda, McNeilly said.

But Bill Rustem, of Public Sector Consultants, questioned whether any Republican could have won such a victory. Snyder clearly picked up Democratic votes. For example, Snyder was running nearly 8 percentage points ahead of Secretary of State-elect Ruth Johnson on her home turf of Oakland County.

And he did it by keeping the focus on Michigan and not the national agenda, Rustem said. To be successful in making changes in Michigan he will have to continue to do that and have to lay out the facts to the voters about Michigan’s condition.

Both Rustem and McNeilly said it was unlikely the state could simply balance a projected $1.6 billion deficit in the 2011-12 fiscal year in just one year.

But Joe DiSano, a Democratic consultant, said Snyder may have more trouble than he anticipates with a Republican Legislature. Because Snyder has clearly come away, so far, as far more moderate than most Republicans, DiSano expected Republican conservatives will try to challenge Snyder once he is in office.

“Conservative Republicans have to be very worried about who just got elected governor,” he said.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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