E-newsletter
Dear Neighbor,
Welcome to my latest e-newsletter! Included in this edition are some important legislative and community updates, along with a few resources I hope will prove helpful. Please do not hesitate to reach out to my office by phone at (517) 373-0144 or email at AlabasFarhat@house.mi.gov or questions about this or any other state-level issue.
Sincerely,
Alabas A. Farhat
State Representative, 3rd House District
Upcoming Events
Coffee Hour
Our Coffee Hours will pause for July and August, but I look forward to seeing all of you in September! Our new location will be Family Bakery in Detroit on the third Friday of each month at 11 a.m.
Budget Updates
State Budget Reinvests in Michigan
The Michigan House of Representatives passed the state’s fiscal 2023-24 budget, marking a significant reinvestment in the people of Michigan. The School Aid budget — the largest in Michigan’s history — expands access to free preschool and provides free breakfast and lunch to every public school student. It also includes robust support for at-risk youth, mental health services, before- and after-school programs and so much more. There is no better investment than our kids, and this budget puts our state on a path to a bright future.
The state budget puts unspent dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act to work repairing roads, bridges and water infrastructure throughout the entire state to ensure that money is used in Michigan instead of being sent back to the federal government. Hundreds of millions will go toward lead line remediation and local road repairs. This budget prioritizes the health of Michiganders through increasing wages for direct care workers, providing incentives to expand our behavioral health care workforce, funding sickle cell disease treatment and so much more. We included substantial support for public safety, helping us graduate dozens of Michigan State Police troopers, upgrading their resources, providing specific mental health support for first responders and addressing gun case backlogs in Detroit and Wayne County. These investments will help us clean up contaminated sites, address PFAS and emerging contaminants, and protect the precious ecosystem of the Great Lakes.
I worked with our state senator to secure over $150 million for House District 3 and neighboring communities.
- Funding for public safety: $15.5 million.
- Secured funding to fight substance abuse disorder: $14.5 million.
- Prioritizing seniors: $6.6 million.
- Supporting our community: $17.5 million.
- Focusing on health: $22.7 million.
- Community infrastructure: $25 million.
- Increased funding to higher education: $57.4 million.
These are just a few highlights of this incredibly exciting budget. These reinvestments mark a new chapter for our state. I can’t wait to see how these investments pay off in the months, years and decades to come.
News Updates
Growing Michigan Together Council Appointment
I am pleased to share that earlier this month, I was appointed to the Growing Michigan Together Council to represent a Democratic member of the Michigan House of Representatives and a voting member under the age of 25. Led by four workgroups, the council will hold several meetings over the next few months, hearing from Michiganders firsthand. The council has been tasked with developing a statewide strategy to grow Michigan’s population and economy.
City of Dearborn Settlement
The city of Dearborn announced a settlement in a lawsuit filed against Pro-V Enterprises LLC. The Southend trucking company had been notified by the city numerous times to abate and find solutions to its output of fugitive dust, airborne particulate matter suspended in the air linked to serious respiratory problems.
The excessive dirt, dust and sediment produced by Pro-V Enterprises’s trucking practices at 4401 Wyoming St. have been in violation of the city’s fugitive dust ordinance and persistently posed serious public health and environmental hazards to Dearborn’s Southend residents. A preliminary injunction filed by the city sought Wayne County Circuit to order Pro-V Enterprises to seize its operations until meaningful steps were taken to mitigate damaging environmental and public health effects.
The company has now agreed to a settlement to invest over $1 million to upgrade its operations and control fugitive dust emissions through a comprehensive plan. The settlement will see the company install dust suppression systems, perform regular road cleaning, implement employee training, and add concrete to the scrap yard area, giving trucks a stable platform to minimize dust generation from their beds.
The company has agreed to complete improvements by Dec. 31, 2024.