Dear Neighbors,

Welcome to this month’s edition of my e-newsletter. I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to tackle the tough issues that will help lower the cost of living, help families get ahead, and build a brighter future for all who call Michigan home.

As always, I welcome your feedback on current issues facing Michigan or the Greater Rochester Area, Troy, Sterling Heights and Utica communities. Constituent feedback is vital as I represent our communities in Lansing. If you are experiencing a problem with one of our state government agencies, my office is always available to assist with finding a solution. I respect your opinion and will always do my best to make myself available and accessible to you.

Please take a moment to visit my website, like my official Facebook page, send me an email or call my office at 517-373-0994. If you have any questions, concerns or opinions on what is happening, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Michael Webber
State Senator
9th District

I joined the Senate in passing the state’s fiscal year 2024 spending plan — House Bill 4437, the general government budget, and Senate Bill 173, the school aid budget.

I came to Lansing to help solve problems and support residents and families across our district and the state who struggle with many of the same challenges as their neighbors. This budget represents a compromise under slim Democratic majorities that is far from perfect. At the end of the day, this spending plan puts important dollars into education and school safety, needed investments in infrastructure and our state parks, increases revenue sharing for local communities, and works to pay down our long-term debts.

In the final version of the budget, I helped to secure:

Significant investments were made into special education initiatives and school safety grants as well as a 5% increase in the per-pupil foundation allowance — up $458 to $9,608 — for K-12 schools.

Michigan students continue to play catch up from extended COVID closures during recent years, and it is important that we work to provide schools and parents with the resources they need to help their students thrive.

The Legislature debated bills that were intended to implement the passage of Proposal 2 from last year’s election. I worked closely with Sen. Ruth Johnson, who previously served as our secretary of state, to secure amendments to the bills to ensure that we will not continue to mail absentee ballots to voters we know have moved to another state and to expand existing Michigan law to require video monitoring of absentee ballot drop boxes.

While supporting the commonsense reforms, I opposed other bills in this package because they went way beyond simple implementation of Proposal 2 as passed by the voters. These include measures that will weaken the integrity of Michigan’s elections by stripping out protections designed to keep our elections secure and fair.

These bills would allow the secretary of state to wield unprecedented power to set procedures for early voting without going through the normal rulemaking process, which is designed to allow for public input and for oversight by the people’s elected representatives in the Legislature.

One doesn’t have to look very hard to see that there are serious concerns at the Hawthorn Center. Many parents who have children at Hawthorn no longer trust the Department of Health and Human Services in keeping their kids safe. We have a duty to these young people and their loved ones to ensure Michigan’s only state-run psychiatric hospital is being operated correctly and following all appropriate policies and laws.

I recently sent letters to Senate Health Policy Chair Kevin Hertel, D-St. Clair Shores, Senate Appropriations DHHS Subcommittee Chair Sylvia Santana, D-Detroit, and Senate Oversight Committee Chair Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, requesting an oversight hearing regarding the Hawthorn Center.

At least 17 young patients have escaped from the center under the supervision of Hawthorn personnel and the facility is the subject of a lawsuit pending from an active shooter drill that took place there in December 2022.

It is also concerning that while the hospital will be reconstructed, current patients will be temporarily housed at Reuther Hospital, where adults are currently being treated. Children and adults should be separated and not housed together under the same roof, which creates legitimate safety concerns.

We must ensure state officials are held accountable and restore confidence to our residents.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government declared a Public Health Emergency, allowing Medicaid members to keep their health care coverage. Per recent federal legislation, eligibility renewals started again in June. Monthly renewal notifications sent by mail began in May.

Following these steps will help determine if you still qualify:

If you’re a Medicaid member, learn more about how these changes may affect your health care coverage at Michigan.gov/MDHHS/end-phe/medicaid-benefit-changes.

State Rep. Mark Tisdel and I introduced legislation that would name a section of Rochester Road from Tienken Road to M-59 the “William S. Broomfield Memorial Highway.”

Broomfield passed away in 2019 at the age of 96 and had an extensive history of civil service, representing residents of Oakland County in both Lansing and Washington, D.C.

Mr. Broomfield spent much of his life working to better the lives of residents in Oakland County. He served with immense dedication and civility while understanding the extraordinarily important role of representing the voice of the people in a government body.

Born in Royal Oak and a veteran of World War II, Broomfield served in Congress for 36 years from 1957 until his retirement in 1993. He was the ranking Republican member of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs for 18 years during the Cold War and through the fall of the Berlin Wall. That allowed Broomfield to be a part of a delegation that traveled to China in 1974 as the United States restored diplomatic relations with the communist nation.

Before going to Washington, Broomfield served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1948 to 1954, becoming speaker pro tempore in 1953. He was elected to the state Senate in 1955.

Senate Bill 375 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and House Bill 4705 has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation, Mobility, and Infrastructure for further consideration.

I was honored to present a legislative tribute to Rochester Mills Beer Co. on its 25th anniversary. This establishment holds a special place in the Greater Rochester Area and with my family.