UPDATED: Gov. Snyder Calls for Road Upgrades, School Changes, Combined Local Services

Gov. Rick Snyder spoke Wednesday night of upgrading Michigan roads, starting a Metro Detroit regional transit authority and helping cities and townships .

Those are among the second-year policy priorities for "the reinvention of Michigan" Snyder pushed during a one-hour State of the State address to legislators and a statewide broadcast audience. 

"We cannot afford to slow down," he declared.

Focusing on transportation, Snyder urged the Legislature to start work on a 13-bill road package introduced last year and hold hearings about how to keep Michigan's aging roads from getting progressively worse.

"The state cannot afford to neglect the health of our infrastructure," he said. "We are underfunding our road system by upward of $1.4 billion a year. Let's solve this."

One step Snyder suggested last year to finance road upgrades involves raising vehicle registration fees by an average of $120 per vehicle.

On Wednesday, the governor also proposed and four surrounding counties, which would help qualify for federal grants to establish high-speed commuter lines serving Detroit, the Ann Arbor area and Oakland, Macomb and western Wayne counties.

The speech previews budget plans coming Feb. 9. With a surprise surplus of $457 million left from the last fiscal year, Snyder can expand initiatives and propose new ones.

"We closed a large deficit," he said. "Now let us show real leadership in how to strategically invest and save for the future – not simply spend money because it's there."

He wants to use some of the money to help local communities finance joint programs to deliver services more efficiently. Though he didn't get specific, that could involve combing emergency services, public works and libraries.

"The state's role is to help local jurisdictions solve their own problems," he said.

As summarized by The Detroit News, Snyder also called for:

• Schools to expand opportunities for "." He suggests that students be able to take at least two computer-based classes each academic year.
• A new Education Achievement Authority to take control of the bottom 5 percent of Michigan's worst-performing schools.
• More frequent campaign finance disclosure filings by political candidates.

Snyder's address followed data released earlier Wednesday by the Department of Technology, Management & Budget that showed the state's unemployment rate for December fell to 9.3 percent compared to 10.7 percent in January 2011, according to The Detroit News.

However, Sen. Vincent Gregory, D-Southfield, whose district includes Huntington Woods, was unmoved Wednesday night.

“In his State of the State address a year ago, Governor Snyder said ‘Job One is jobs,’ but over the last year and in his address tonight, he has yet to put forth any significant economic proposals to create jobs,” Gregory said in a statement.

On Thursday, he reflected further in an e-mail to Berkley Patch.

"After attending the State of the State, I was left to wonder why the governor was not more specific about what the plans are for 2012," Gregory wrote. "The governor talked about education and the need to be a more educated state, yet he gave no specifics as to more money for schools or what we would do to improve education in Michigan.

"There was no talk of Personal Property tax, yet it is still being discussed in committees and there was no talk of revenue sharing, both issues affect all communities," he added.

Likewise, readers who commented Wednesday night on the Berkley Patch Facebook page were unimpressed with the speech, saying the following.

• Marc Katz: A lot of words that said nothing. Rather boring speech. 
• Elizabeth Lenhard: timid and boring
• Pamela Mack: In between the massive legislative love fest and applause nothing really said. Really did they need to applaud every breath.

But, reader Kim Valade Tarnopol responded with a different perspective Thursday on the Berkley Patch Facebook page.

"I agree that Gov. Snyder is not a dynamic speaker but, honestly, I could care less about how much charisma he has or how boring his speech was," she wrote. "He is driving Michigan to work within a budget for the first time in a very long time. Some of the changes are painful but we currently are in debt by over $7700 per citizen! Real change is necessary. I will take character over charisma any day."

Snyder glanced at an official eight-section outline of his key points during the Capitol address.

As a follow-up, the Republican governor has an online town hall forum set for  6 p.m. Thursday that will be live-streamed here and at Rick Snyder For Michigan on Facebook. Questions can be submitted at the state's website.

In March, Snyder pledged, he'll deliver a special crime-reduction message to the Legislature.

"While statewide crime is down," he noted Wednesday, "it is unacceptable that Saginaw, Flint, Detroit and Pontiac are among the nation’s top 10 cities in violent crime."