Dear Neighbor,

I am honored to serve as the state representative for the 29th House District and am proud to be a strong advocate in Lansing for the residents and families of our community. Please encourage your friends and family to stay connected and subscribe to this e-newsletter. It will keep you up-to-date on legislation and policies coming from the Capitol, as well as my coffee hours and other community events I host both virtually and in person.

In this issue:

  • Upcoming Events
  • Small Business of the Month
  • Insurance Town Hall
  • Executive Update
  • Budget Update

Upcoming Events

 

Coffee Hours

Please join me for my next community conversation hour on Monday, June 14, at 8 a.m. This is an opportunity to ask me anything! You can join on Zoom or Facebook.

Appropriations Town Hall

Please join me for an Appropriations Town Hall on Monday, June 14, at 1 p.m. We will talk about the appropriations process from the federal level to the county level during this town hall. There will also be a question and answer section. If you are curious about how money flows in government, this event is for you! You can join on Zoom or Facebook.

Small Business of the Month

Our business spotlight for May is Dimitri’s Opa Restaurant and Bar in Auburn Hills. Their establishment has enhanced the dining experience for the Auburn Hills area and is delightful to visit.

Small businesses are the heart of our communities, and the dedicated people who operate them deserve their hard work and contributions to be acknowledged. If you know of a small business we should spotlight for June, please send nominations to Brendacarter@house.mi.gov. Nominated businesses must be located within Pontiac, Auburn Hills, Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake or Orchard Lake Village.

Insurance Town Hall Replay

If you missed our town hall with the Department of Insurance and Financial Services regarding the upcoming changes to Michigan’s auto insurance laws, you can watch a replay here and enter passcode:^!540Q1u. We discussed the changes in great detail, and I was so glad to offer an opportunity for our community to get their questions answered.

If you have additional questions or need resources, you can go to https://www.michigan.gov/autoinsurance.

Executive Update

As many employers return to in-person work this week, Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (MIOSHA) has updated its COVID-19 emergency rules. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has also updated its COVID-19 Gatherings and Face Masks epidemic order, eliminating outdoor capacity limits and increasing indoor social gatherings to 50% capacity, which is set to take effect on June 1.

MIOSHA has updated other aspects of the emergency rules to reflect the recent order from MDHHS and guidance from the CDC. Those changes include:

  • Employers may allow fully vaccinated employees to not wear face coverings and social distance provided they have a policy deemed effective to ensure non-vaccinated individuals continue to follow these requirements.
  • The rules have been reformed, focusing on performance and eliminating industry-specific requirements. Definitions have been updated to more clearly reflect changes in close contact and quarantining requirements for fully vaccinated employees.
  • Cleaning requirements have been updated to reflect changes in CDC recommendations.
  • Employers should continue to have and implement a written COVID-19 preparedness and response plan following the updated rules.

Budget Update

 

Recently, the House passed 16 departmental budgets for the 2022 fiscal year and a series of supplemental budget bills to allocate billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funding. Unfortunately, this irresponsible budget proposal reads more like a partisan agenda than actually providing the support and relief that Michiganders need now. It includes 75% funding cuts for many state departments, focuses on unnecessarily paying off bonds early instead of investing in transformational projects and ties many vital programs to removing gubernatorial authority. House Democrats proposed nearly 50 amendments to right the many wrongs in this proposal, almost all of which were rejected. The budget bills went on to pass largely along party lines. In the wake of the worst crisis we’ve seen in our lifetimes, now is the time to invest in our people, economy and infrastructure, but the budgets that passed last week fail to deliver.