Dear Friends,

Welcome to this month’s edition of my e-newsletter. It is an honor to serve the people of Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties as your voice in the Michigan Senate.

The goal of this e-newsletter is to help keep you informed about what’s happening in the 16th Senate District, in Lansing and across our state. I will also be sharing the latest information on my official Senate Facebook page. If you have any questions or need to get in contact with me, feel free to call my office toll-free at 855-347-8016 or via email at SenJBellino@senate.michigan.gov.

Working for you,

Joseph Bellino, Jr.
State Senator

My legislation to honor the life and service of Hillsdale County Deputy Sheriff William Butler Jr., who was killed in the line of duty in 2024, was recently signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

I want to thank the governor for signing this legislation to pay tribute to the life and service of Deputy Butler, who was an Iraq War veteran, a devoted husband, a loving father and a well-respected law enforcement officer.

Deputy Butler served and protected the people of Hillsdale County for a dozen years, and this new memorial will help ensure his life, service and sacrifice are never forgotten.

Senate Bill 70, now Public Act 10 of 2025, designates a portion of Highway M-34 in Hillsdale County from Pioneer Road to South Pittsford Road as the “Deputy Sheriff William Butler Jr. Memorial Highway.”

Deputy Butler was killed on duty at age 51 after being fatally shot while bravely assisting another officer during a traffic stop in 2024. He was the first Hillsdale County sheriff’s deputy to be killed on duty since 1930.

The new law will have no fiscal impact on state or local government. State law requires sufficient private contributions to completely cover the cost of erecting and maintaining markers indicating the name of a memorial highway.

I recently spoke on the Senate floor about the need for better leadership from our governor on the real issues facing families throughout Michigan.

We need a governor who will roll up their sleeves, hammer out a budget, clean up corruption, and put education and jobs first — not Instagram likes and taxpayer-funded vacations.

Click here or on the image below to watch my floor remarks.

I recently took to the Senate floor to talk about sky-high property taxes that are squeezing the life out of Michigan families, small-business owners and seniors on fixed incomes.

High property taxes are driving people out of their neighborhoods, discouraging investment and making it harder for young families to buy their first homes. Retirees are being forced to downsize, not because they want to, but because they simply can’t keep up with the tax bills.

Property taxes were meant to fund essential local services like schools, police, and fire departments. But over the years, the system has been twisted into a bloated, complex and ever-growing tax burden that punishes homeowners for the crime of simply living in and maintaining their own homes.

Enough is enough. We must stop treating taxpayers as a bottomless bank account and start treating them as the hardworking citizens they are. If we fail to act, we will lose more families, more small businesses and more of our future to states that respect their residents and their wallets.

I am calling for serious property tax reform in Michigan, such as:

Click here or on the image below to watch my floor remarks on my official Senate Facebook page.

It was great to hear that the Port of Monroe has been awarded $1 million in Brownfield Redevelopment Grant funds to enhance its infrastructure and capacity.

The Port of Monroe is Michigan’s only port on Lake Erie, and this funding will help the facility make important infrastructure improvements that will enable it to better compete with other Great Lakes ports.

Helping improve efficiency at the port means supporting high-wage jobs for area workers and long-term economic growth by reducing the cost of shipping goods and products.

In July, the port applied for funding under the Michigan Brownfield Redevelopment Program. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has awarded $1 million in Brownfield Redevelopment Grant funds to the port for a multifaceted rehabilitation and expansion of the port’s facilities.

It is especially important that drivers be vigilant when sharing the road with school buses. When a school bus is present, drivers should always:

Last year, the Michigan Uniform Power of Attorney Act went into effect, making power of attorney agreements more effective for Michigan residents.

A Power of Attorney agreement is a notarized document that allows a person to grant someone else the legal authority to act on their behalf. Michigan residents and their families can use these free, fillable Finances Power of Attorney and Medical Power of Attorney forms which are available for download.

These user-friendly forms make it easier for Michigan residents and their family members to appoint a trusted individual to make important financial and medical decisions on their behalf if they become unable to do so.

The 2025 fall fishing season is expected to be excellent due to the hard work of Michigan DNR’s fisheries spring and summer stocking program. This year, a total of 18,958,970 fish, weighing nearly 331.5 tons and comprising 10 different species and one hybrid, were reared and delivered to stocking sites.

Fish stocking plays a vital role in maintaining quality fishing experiences for anglers while also conserving fish populations and their habitats. These efforts contribute an estimated $3.9 billion annually to the state’s economy. The DNR maintains a Fish Stocking Database, allowing the public to track when, where, and what species are stocked throughout the state.

Michigan’s six state and two cooperative hatcheries work together to produce the necessary species, strains, and sizes of fish for fisheries management. The fish must be delivered and stocked at a specific time and location to ensure their success.

The public is welcome at any of Michigan’s state fish hatcheries to see the fish-rearing process firsthand.