LANSING – Governor Rick Snyder said tonight at the opening of his State of the State speech that he will release his emails from 2014 and 2015 on Flint water.
Whether that will include just Snyder’s emails or those of all those in the Executive Office was not immediately clear. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the governor and his Executive Office are exempt.
A clearly chastened Snyder is using the bulk of his sixth State of the State speech, as expected, to address the water crisis in Flint, outlining an immediate emergency spending plan, apologizing for errors his administration committed, offering a timeline of what he knew and when and making clear he will not resign.
He apologized profusely to the people of Flint.
“You deserve to know that the buck stops here with me,” he said.
Many Democrats, from activists up through presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, have called for Snyder to resign because of his administration’s role in the decisions that led to lead levels rising beyond levels requiring action in Flint’s water and children seeing elevated levels of lead in their blood. A Legionnaire’s outbreak in Genesee County also possibly resulted from using the Flint River as an interim source of water while the city awaited completion of a new pipeline to Lake Huron.
But Snyder was expected to say in the speech that he believes he owes it to Flint to fix the problem, not walk away. Resigning would amount to giving up on the city, he was expected to say.
As was first reported by Gongwer News Service, Snyder is also using his speech to call on the Legislature to pass a $28.03 million supplemental to aid Flint ($22.63 million General Fund). The bill will be taken up Wednesday morning in the House Appropriations Committee.
He will announce the state will ramp up the number of National Guard members in the city from approximately 70 to 200, enabling completion of door-to-door visits at every household in the city by the end of the week at the latest.
Snyder also will say the state is appealing President Barack Obama’s denial of the state’s request for a major disaster declaration. The federal government has said it has no authority to declare a disaster stemming from man-made causes.
The only other major topic in the speech tonight is the crisis engulfing the Detroit Public Schools. Snyder is expected to address the topic on a broad level and urge quick action because the district could run out of money in April or May.
Snyder, for the first time as governor, is speaking from a prepared text, departing from his traditional use of an outline. So important is the discussion on Flint that he wanted to take no chances on the wording.
This story was published by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on www.gongwer.com
