Metrics, schmetrics. Did they think we wouldn’t notice???
Governor Snyder is takes great pride in his reliance on transparency and metrics as indicators of his “success” as the leader CEO of our state. His “dashboard” is supposedly a way for the citizens of our fine state to keep an eye on his “progress”. However, looking at his dashboard today, it’s clear that the terms “transparency” and “metrics” have a somewhat different meaning to him than they do to the rest of us.
Here’s a screenshot from this morning of his Michigan Dashboard:
Click for a larger version
There are a couple of very interesting items here. First, have a look at the box titled “Economic Strength”. The second item listed there is “Real Gross Domestic Product”.
In 2011, it was 3.5%. The current listing is 2.3%. Yet, right next to it is a green ‘thumbs up’ icon, indicating (according the accompanying legend) “Performance Improving”. Now, perhaps I’m missing something here but I would say a drop of nearly 35% from 3.5% to 2.3% is hardly improving. If the legend is accurate, that should decidedly be a red ‘thumbs down’.
In the “Value for Money Government” (whatever that means) box, the credit rating from Moody’s and S&P have stayed flat.
Yet, here again, we see the green ‘thumbs up’. According to the legend, it should be an equal sign signifying “Perfomance staying about the same”. In this case, it’s not “about the same”, it’s exactly the same.
If you go to the detailed dashboard for infrastructure, there are 16 items listed. Of those, half are red ‘thumbs’ down. In other words, no surprise here, infrastructure in Michigan is deteriorating under the Tough Nerd.
Here’s a fun fact: in 2010 2.45 billion gallons of raw sewage were discharged into public waterways. The current level? 7.9 billion gallons of raw sewage entering our lakes, rivers, and streams:
Yum! PROGRESS!!!
One of two things is happening here. It’s possible that there are some errors on the infamous “Dashboard”. Something overlooked. An error. Given his penchant for metrics and transparency, one would assume much greater attention to detail.
The other option is more nefarious and that’s that Governor Snyder is trying to make things look much better than they are. In other words, he’s deceiving Michiganders and hoping nobody will notice. Considering that he raised taxes, cut education funding, and gave giant tax breaks to corporations while doing his damnedest to crush unions, all with the promise that it would create jobs and spur the economy, I can see why he’d want to paint a rosier picture than what is actually happening
However, neither option shows the good governor to be up to the task of runnng our state. To use the business jargon that Governor Snyder throws around so faciley, this is deceptive advertising. He’s lying to his “customers”, the citizens of the state of Michigan.
Nice try, Governor Snyder. Thankfully some of us ARE paying attention.
[Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog]