State of Michigan Scorecard (By the Numbers)

Public sector

New Michigan Scorecard: Five years later, state still stuck in neutral

11 September 2013

by Rick Haglund
Bridge Magazine correspondent

Despite a rebounding auto industry and real estate prices beginning to turn around, Michigan is barely moving the needle in many other quality of life rankings against other states. That’s the somewhat humbling message of this year’sMichigan Scorecard, compiled through a partnership of The Center for Michigan and Data Driven Detroit.

The scorecard, now in its fifth year and based on dozens of data sources and some two dozen specific measures, shows Michigan has made little overall progress during the past five years in four broad areas:

• Education and talent;
• Jobs, prosperity and economy;
• Quality of life;
• Politics and civic participation.

That doesn’t surprise Charles Ballard, a Michigan State University economist who is an expert on the state’s economy.

Ballard says the state dug itself into a deep hole over the past several decades and it will take many more years to climb out of it.

“Some of the problems we face are the legacy of trends that have been happening for 60 years. We’re not going to fix them by next Thursday,” he said. “No governor or legislature can snap their fingers and transform things.”

Michigan showed improvement in the rankings since last year in venture capital, tax burden and, in some ways, in public opinion of state leadership.

Michigan regressed slightly in some other areas: gross domestic product growth compared to other states, the environment, philanthropy and volunteering. There was no qualitative change in the many other categories tracked in the scorecard. Scorecard rankings are based on the latest available data.

If there has been one bright spot in Michigan since the end of what many called the state’s “lost decade,” it’s the economy.

After losing jobs for 10 straight years, Michigan added 257,400 payroll jobs between the end of 2009 and July. That job growth is one reason Gov. Rick Snyder has been calling Michigan “the comeback state.”

Michigan ranks fourth in recent job growth among the states, according to the latest data cited in the scorecard.

Still, there are about 643,000 fewer people employed in Michigan than there were at the state’s last employment peak in 2000, according to the government’s monthly household survey. And the state’s unemployment rate, currently at 8.8 percent, has risen for the past two months. The national jobless rate is 7.4 percent.

Michigan’s ranking against other states in exports, and university research and development, showed little change since last year, although these are strong components of the state’s economy. The state has consistently ranked among the top 10 states in university research and development spending in recent years.

Michigan also posted a record $29.1 billion in merchandise exports during the first half of this year, according to the International Trade Administration.

Venture capital, which many technology-based startup businesses depend on to grow, flowed into Michigan at a faster rate last year. The state ranked 15th in the amount of venture capital invested last year—$242 million—up from 25th in 2011, according to the Michigan Venture Capital Association.

“Thanks to the successful venture community in Michigan, more entrepreneurs are considering the state as a destination to locate and grow their business,” said Carrie Jones, the association’s executive director.

Michigan’s business tax burden also fell last year. The state had the 12th best business tax climate last year, up from 18th in 2011, according to the Tax Foundation.

But Michigan remains a relatively poor state, which still heavily depends on a manufacturing base that pays new workers lower wages than in the past.

The state ranked 35th in per capita income last year. That’s up from 40th in 2011, but down from 17th in 1999.

Ballard attributes that in part to poorly educated workers as more jobs require higher level of educational attainment.

“We remain a state where way too many people don’t graduate from high school,” he said. “If you don’t graduate from high school, your economic prospects are lousy. And the number of our high school graduates who are college-ready is frighteningly small.”

Fourth-grade math and reading scores have slipped since last year’s Scorecard analysis. Michigan ranks 42nd in fourth grade math scores and 36th in fourth grade reading.

Eighth-grade reading scores improved from 33rd in the nation to 29th this year and eight-grade math scores dropped to 37th from 36th last year.

High school completion rates have remained at 76 percent since 2010, according to the scorecard data.

Michigan ranks 37th in college completion, down from 36th last year. College affordability approved somewhat, from 48th in the country in 2012 to 45th this year.

The state ranks 25th in per-pupil investment in the K-12 system, down from 24th last year. State public schoolteachers are the eighth-highest paid in the country, up from 12th last year.

Investment in Michigan’s higher education system, compared to other states, has improved slightly from a year ago. But the state, which ranks 39th, is still far below average.

“The numbers are unfortunate, but accurate,” said state Board of Education President John Austin. “We’ve been losing ground the past couple of years because of reduced investment in higher education and the K-12 system.

“We’ve done all the reform pieces in K-12 but we haven’t delivered on the investment side,” he said.

Michigan ranked 16th nationally in per pupil expenditures in 2008, but has fallen to 25th now.

Education system critics, including the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, say state financial support isn’t the problem with educational performance.

Michigan is spending about $13 billion in state resources on K-12 education this year, the single largest use of state revenue. Some others say most local school district financial problems are a result of declining enrollments and increased costs for employee pay and benefits.

Michigan also fares poorly against other states in other “quality of life” areas that depend on state government financial and policy support. Rankings in public safety, incarceration rates, poverty and the condition of roads all slipped this year compared to 2012.

The scorecard has ranked the state’s overall public health as “average” compared to the nation every year since 2008.

Overall environmental quality in the state slipped from “good” to “average” in this year’s scorecard. Michigan ranks 25th in power generated from renewable energy sources this year, down from 21st last year. Greenhouse gas emissions per capita and toxic chemical releases increased.

Michigan Environmental Council spokesman Hugh McDiarmid Jr. said the state has made progress on key environmental and public health fronts, including taking steps toward building a better public transportation system and making a stronger commitment to eliminating childhood lead poisoning.
But natural resources protections “have been significantly eroded” by rollbacks of environmental laws in the Legislature, he said.

Ballard, who conducts MSU’s State of the State Survey, says the most crucial areas where Michigan is lagging are education, per capita income and employment.

“Those three things say a lot,” Ballard said.

2013 Michigan Scorecard

13 August 2013

by Bridge Magazine

EDUCATION AND TALENT SCORECARD

CATEGORY	2008	2010	2012	2014
Student Performance	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
4th Grade Math	33rd	39th	41st	42nd
8th Grade Math	37th	37th	36th	37th
4th Grade Reading	31st	31st	35th	36th
8th Grade Reading	30th	33rd	33rd	29th
4th Grade Science	NA	NA	28th	28th
8th Grade Science	NA	NA	24th	18th
High School Completion	Good	Fair	Good	Good
Graduation rate	75%	76%	76%	76%
Drop-out rate	15%	14%	11%	11%
Adults with a diploma	87%	89%	89%	91%
K-12 Investment	Good	Fair	Poor	Poor
Per pupil expenditure	16th	20th	24th	25th
Teacher salary	7th	9th	12th	8th
College completion	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
National ranking	35th	35th	35th	37th
College affordability	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
National ranking	NA	47th	48th	45th
Higher education investment	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
National ranking	37th	42nd	41st	39th

JOBS, PROSPERITY AND ECONOMY SCORECARD

CATEGORY	2008	2010	2012	2014
Personal income	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
Per capita income ranking	36th	40th	40th	35th
Unemployment rate	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
Unemployment rate	7.9%	12.8%	9.3%	8.7%
Job growth	Poor	Poor	Good	Good
Job growth ranking	49th	49th	13th	4th
Overall economic growth	Poor	Poor	Good	Fair
State GDP growth ranking	50th	50th	13th	18th
Exports	N/A	Fair	Good	Good
Exports ranking among states	6th	8th	7th	8th
Research and development	Good	Fair	Good	Good
University R&D rankings	10th	11th	10th	10th
R&D growth	29th	27th	6th	23rd
Venture Capital	Fair	Fair	Fair	Good
National ranking	29th	25th	18th	15th
Business tax burden	Fair	Fair	Fair	Good
National ranking	28th	17th	18th	12th

QUALITY OF LIFE SCORECARD

CATEGORY	2008	2010	2012	2014
Public safety	Poor	Fair	Poor	Poor
Violent crime ranking	10th	17th	12th	14th
Incarceration ranking	11th	19th	17th	23rd
Poverty	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
Poverty ranking	42nd	35th	35th	36th
Population trends	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
Population ranking	8th	8th	8th	9th
Persons gained/lost	-46K	-86K	-1K	+7K
Public health	Fair	Fair	Fair	Fair
Active physicians	27th	25th	23rd	18th
Insurance coverage	12th	14th	15th	17th
Infant mortality	44th	38th	36th	37th
Tobacco use	39th	36th	34th	41st
Diabetes	41st	35th	39th	30th
Obesity	45th	35th	44th	46th
Exercise	27th	29th	24th	16th
Home ownership	Good	Good	Good	Good
Home ownership ranking	2nd	4th	6th	6th
Infrastructure	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
Roads in poor condition	38%	37%	37%	38%
Bridges in poor condition	28%	30%	30%	28%
Arts and Culture	Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor
NEA grants ranking	16th	15th	17th	16th
Capita ranking	33rd	30th	47th	33rd
Environment	N/A	Poor	Good	Fair
Renewable energy ranking	16th	22nd	21st	25th
Energy use ranking	10th	12th	11th	15th
Forested area ranking	11th	12th	12th	12th
Greenhouse gas emissions	28th	29th	30th	28th
Toxic chemicals released	33rd	36th	36th	38th
State enviromental report	N/A	N/A	good	good

POLITICS AND CIVIC PARTICIPATION SCORECARD

CATEGORY	2008	2010	2012	2014
Public opinion	Poor	Poor	Poor	Fair
State headed in wrong direction	78%	N/A	66%	43%
Government efficiency	Good	Good	Good	Good
Number of government employees	11th	11th	11th	12th
Government employee pay	12th	13th	13th	13th
Voter participation	Good	N/A	Good	N/A
National ranking – presidential	11th	N/A	7th	N/A
Philanthropy and giving	Good	Good	Good	Fair
Total giving	5th	6th	8th	9th
Volunteer hours	31st	13th	30th	35th

Source download (.xls file)