Dear Neighbor,

Welcome to my e-newsletter! I’m honored and humbled to serve as our community’s voice at the Capitol in Lansing. As we continue into the term, rest assured that the challenges families in our community and state are facing are at the top of my legislative priorities.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to my office by phone at (517) 373-0152 or email at AmosONeal@house.mi.gov if we can help.

Sincerely,

Amos O’Neal

State Representative, 95th House District

In this issue:

  • Events
    • Community Conversation – April 21, Banning Juvenile Life Without Parole
    • Education Town Hall – April 2, ESSER Funding and What Our Schools Need
  • Legislation
    • Payroll Fraud Package
    • State Budget Update

Upcoming Community Conversation

Please join us on April 21 at 6 p.m. on Facebook Live. I will give a brief legislative update. Then, we will have a conversation about my bill package to ban juvenile life without parole. Our special guests helping discuss this crucial issue are Preston Shipp from the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, Bishop Holden from T.D. Holden Jail and Ministries, James Thomas from ICAN, and Ronnie Waters from Safe and Just Michigan.

We hope to save some time for Q&A, so come with questions for our guests. You can join us on Facebook Live by clicking here or searching @StateRepAmosONeal. 

I hope to see you there!

Education Town Hall

On Monday, April 25, at 6 p.m., I will be joining the Ezekiel Project of Saginaw for a listening session on school funding. We want to take this opportunity to hear about the concerns within our community and find out what you think for what we should be funding.

Come prepared to use your voice at this virtual event and tell us what you believe the students of Saginaw deserve in our schools. The goal of this event is to create a list of recommendations to share with the school board Finance Committee(s) and to bring these recommendations to the school board budget hearings in June.

Register here today!

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Payroll Fraud Package 

This week, I participated in a press conference in Lansing where we announced a “Payroll Fraud” bill package. These bills are essential for helping our working neighbors get what they deserve.  Michigan has some of the most talented, most dependable and hardest working people in the world. Tax fraud happens when unscrupulous businesses cheat their workers and, in the process, also cheat Michigan taxpayers. We won’t stand for tax fraud or for cheating workers and communities. This package will finally do something about this.

Our laws are only as good as our ability to enforce them. So that’s why introduced a bill in the package that would allocate $5 million to the Attorney General’s Office to improve the department’s Payroll Fraud Unit.

State Budget Update

This week in Lansing, we have been making progress on approving the fiscal 2023 budget. Subcommittees are meeting to report out budgets so the full House Appropriations Committee can take up a vote and see the final budget bills within the next few weeks. Every Michigan family deserves an economy that works for them, and that is why I will keep fighting to get Saginaw the much-needed dollars for our community. I have focused some of my budget conversations on projects like the Buena Vista High School repurposing, the redevelopment project of Saginaw’s Second National Bank, increases to local public health funding and much more. Please never hesitate to reach out to my office with other areas of focus that I need to improve upon.