Dear neighbor,

Below, you will find legislative updates from the state Capitol that are important to the residents of western Oakland County. You also will find important updates and communications on my website: SenatorJimRunestad.com.

Serving you,

Senator Jim Runestad
23rd State Senate District

Flock cameras have been popping up like weeds all over Michigan, building the infrastructure of a potentially glaring surveillance state. While Flock touts its product as a tool for public safety, I am determined to strike the right balance between safe streets and protecting privacy.

Recently, in response to pushback and clear cases of misuse, Flock has committed to cutting its data retention to seven days, paving the way for sensible regulation to get passed.

My legislation, Senate Bill 1131, would heavily limit how the data collected by these cameras can be used and who can use it. It would require a warrant from law enforcement to use the data unless an active criminal investigation is taking place and require the data collected to be automatically deleted after 14 days.

We need to get this legislation passed immediately and begin working on other sensible safeguards that prioritize the privacy of law-abiding citizens.

You can hear more from my recent interview on WJR.

As a new school year is about to begin, I am again pushing for new laws to protect our children from indoctrination that we have seen occurring in some public schools.

My new bill, Senate Bill 1147, would ban critical race theory, the 1619 Project and other anti-American subjects from being taught in public schools.

This legislation would prevent students from being force-fed the claim that America is a fundamentally racist country. These lessons ignore the founding values of America and place sole emphasis on dividing people into separate, immutable categories. I don’t see a value in teaching young students they are inherently part of a “bad class” or have a higher likelihood of success or failure based on their skin color.

You can read more about this legislation by clicking here.

Ilona Rugg was fired and escorted out of the building for informing teachers of a new proposed millage.

Each year it seems like the school budgets get bigger and bigger, yet educational outcomes in our state continue to get worse and worse. What are the purposes of these tax increases? How do they help the students?

Declining student performance suggests these increases do very little to help students. Funding increases have overwhelmingly gone to administrators and left teachers and students behind. We don’t need more bureaucratic layers; we need more resources to help students succeed.

People are tired of their pockets being picked with little to nothing to show for it. At some point, accountability must prevail, and these important questions must be asked.

What happened to Ilona is a shameful example of how schools circle the wagons to protect their honey hole of taxpayer money, and I am happy to see the public is finally being exposed to this insider cronyism that plagues our public schools.

DTE’s record-breaking profits provide more evidence for the need to pass my legislation to rein in our state’s monopolistic utilities.

I have introduced legislation to reel in the massive influence these companies have over our government and over elected officials, as well as legislation to put an end to the never-ending rate increases that have burdened residents for decades — but the Democratic majority in the Senate refuses to touch them.

I am going to continue pushing for these measures to be passed and finally put ratepayers over the companies who enjoy no competition and government-guaranteed profits.

One of my key responsibilities as a lawmaker is listening to the people who chose me to be their voice in Lansing.

If there is something my office can help with, if you have a question about a state issue, or if you have policy questions or an idea on how to make Michigan stronger, please feel free to contact my office. My staff and I are available to help in any way we can.

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