2016 State of the State Address Is One For The Books

2016 State of the State Address Is One For The Books

LANSING - It was an eventful evening in Lansing as hundreds of people gathered outside of the Capitol building before Governor Rick Snyder's 2016 State of the State address.

Protestors held their signs up high and declared at the top of their lungs "Snyder needs to go!!"
Signs that stated things such as "why pay for poison?" as well as "own it and resign."

The Flint water crisis was the topic at hand during tonight's protest and majority of the address and several civilians had a lot to say.

"When executives make mistakes that have detrimental impacts to the citizens they pay the price so I think in this case he should pay the price," mentioned Ann Arbor resident Leon Bryson.

Bryson continued his thoughts stating "To put dirty water in their mouths, that's dirt on the government and on the Governor. When you start harming children and people in our state and ignoring their concerns, it's time for you to step down."

The State of the State address began at 7:00 this evening with Governor Snyder highlighting the major challenges Michigan is facing. Challenges such as the water crisis in Flint, the condition of Detroit Public Schools as well as Michigan's economic future.

The Governor discussed immediate actions that are being implemented to help Flint residents including daily door-to-door distribution of bottled water, water filters, filter replacements and water testing kits.

He stated that he will be releasing copies of his emails to the public on Wednesday, January 20th that were sent to him back in 2015 when the Flint water situation began.

He appeared apologetic while speaking making comments such as "We need to make sure this doesn't happen again in any Michigan city" as well as comments like "We need to keep looking to the future, instead of admiring things of the past."

He ended his discussion regarding the Flint water crisis with the following statement: "The challenges we face in Flint are challenging, but solvable."

Once the State of the State address had come to a close, elected officials met with the media to reveal their thoughts on tonight's address.

Some thought Governor Snyder did a great job discussing Michigan's challenges, others felt differently.

"I think the Governor hit the spots tonight talking about what happened, how it happened and he never sharked away from it and said anything other than we need to fix it," State Senator of the 34th District Goeff Hansen stated.

Other officials felt that the topic of long-term issues were avoided.

"Really the long term crisis is still out there and we need to put some numbers out there so we are able to provide some comfort to the citizens of Flint to know that the long term needs of those kids and the elderly are going to be addressed," House Democratic Floor Leader of the 69th District Sam Singh mentioned.

State Representative of the 60th District Jon Hoadley had a lot to say as well.

"I think when it comes to Flint we have to remember that there's literally over 8,000 babies, kids under the age of 6 that have been drinking poisonous water and they're gonna deal with that for the rest of their lives so all politics aside..is this how you want to treat the children in your community and how do we solve the problems and the policies that made this happen in the first place?"

A lot was discussed at tonight's State of the State address but the next question is…what is the next move for Governor Rick Snyder?

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