Governor Snyder is preparing to deliver his second State of the State address tonight. Snyder will deliver the address from the House floor at the Capitol building in Lansing and preparations for the evening are already underway, the Grand Rapids Press reports:
Crews already are working to reconfigure the House floor, which is the largest room in the Capitol and normally serves as the workplace for 110 state representatives and some staff members. For the speech, representatives are allowed to bring a guest – typically a relative or community leader – and are joined by the members of the state Senate, the Supreme Court and department heads. Once you add 100 members of the media, the crowd comes to about 600. It fills the chamber’s floor, gallery and two adjoining rooms, said Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall. “It’s not for the claustrophobic,” he said. The representatives’ desks don’t move easily, tethered electronically for voting and communications, so workers are expected to spend much of the day removing other furniture and bringing in chairs to accommodate guests and dignitaries.
And, what should we expect to hear from the Governor? Rick Pluta reported from Lansing earlier this week that the Governor says he will use this year's address to report back to the Legislature and the citizens of Michigan on the state’s progress over the past year. "The governor promises the speech will be a frank assessment of where his goal of ‘reinventing Michigan’ stands. The governor says people can expect fewer new initiatives for the Legislature to tackle this year in his second State of the State address. He says more of the focus will be on how he intends to manage the executive branch of state government," Pluta explains.
Michigan Radio will have live, special coverage of the address, including analysis of the speech and a Democratic response, beginning tonight at 7 p.m.
