Governor Snyder kicks off 2012 Mackinac Policy Conference

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. (WXYZ) - Michigan is America's comeback state. That's how Governor Snyder opened this year’s Mackinac Policy Conference.

There's a lot of big talk about big changes for the Detroit region, but it always seems to be hampered by the fact that the economy was dragging it down.

Now things seem to be turning it around.

The state is turning around. Attitudes are turning it around. And talking with the governor today, I sense that he believes that changes can really start happening from here.

The Mackinac conference is more streamlined and focused this year.

Some 1,500 Michigan business leaders and politicians are all under instructions to innovate, collaborate, and expand Michigan’s global reach.

Governor Snyder says it’s time.

“We’re the comeback state in the country and we need to be telling people across the country and the world that,” Snyder says.

Michigan is indeed a comeback story, from one of the worst unemployment rates to just a hair from the best - budget surpluses, talk of tax cuts and all those protests that greeted Governor Snyder?

“It’s quieted down a lot,” Snyder says. “And I appreciate it though, because it was asking for sacrifice from people. These were not easy things to do. And in a perfect world, you wouldn’t do them, but we were a mess. “