Serving the good people of Ottawa County is very important to me, and I encourage you to contact me with any state issue. You may email [email protected] or call (517) 373-6920. Also, please check out my Facebook page. Let me know if I can assist you in any way or if you have an idea to help move our state forward.

Working for you,
Roger Victory
State Senator

Last year was one of tremendous challenges, and we still face significant obstacles to overcome on behalf of all Michiganders.

We began 2020 restoring budget cuts made by the governor and helping communities and homeowners along Lake Michigan dealing with the devastating shoreline erosion due to historically high water levels. Then the coronavirus came to Michigan and everything changed.

We acted immediately to pass critical funding to protect people from the virus and stood up for students, teachers, nursing home residents, struggling small businesses and workers who lost their jobs due to the shutdowns. It was the beginning of nearly $4 billion we would approve to help combat the virus and its impact.

Unfortunately, the situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic was compounded by the governor’s unilateral actions that unnecessarily endangered lives, shut down our economy and cost millions of people their livelihoods.

The governor’s veto of $220 million in relief funds to extend unemployment benefits for affected workers is an example of how her actions affected real people.

Also left in the governor’s wake were victims of unemployment fraud, restaurants who were punished without any data showing they were threats for spreading the virus, and struggling small businesses whose only crime was that they happen to be in Michigan.

The governor’s punitive shutdown orders were overly harsh and didn’t consider industries or areas that could safely reopen sooner. As a result, our unemployment rate skyrocketed.

The governor then failed our workers again when her Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) couldn’t handle the record-setting flood of folks filing claims. My staff and I have assisted over 1,000 frustrated constituents with their claims.

And now it turns out the UIA is still wrongfully accusing people of fraud. A West Michigan teacher recently received a letter threatening to garnish her wages unless she repays unemployment dollars she should not have received — even though she hadn’t applied for benefits or received any money and promptly reported the fraud.

I’m upset that people like this teacher must go through this nightmare and that the governor’s agency can’t follow the protocols we put in place. Five years ago, I was able to get reform signed requiring the UIA to have employees verify when fraud has been committed and improve their notification process. I will continue to fight for hardworking people against these types of preventable bureaucratic blunders.

Last year, I was proud to stand up against the governor’s unilateral action and for our system of government and the voice of the people — and I will continue to do so. Unfortunately, even after the Supreme Court ruled against the governor’s abuse of power, she continues to go it alone.

The governor often talks about working together to solve this crisis, but her idea of working together seems to be for us to shut up and do whatever she wants.

That’s not what the people of Ottawa County want or what Michigan residents deserve.

I renew my commitment to do everything I can to help us get through this pandemic and enable our businesses to reopen and our workers to recover.

We need to work together to ensure the effective distribution of the vaccine, support our front-line health care workers as they save lives, help reopen our schools to in-person learning, support struggling workers trying to make ends meet, and ensure we have proactive policies in place to restart our economy. Let’s get to work.

Below is a list of resources available to you if you need any type of assistance. Additionally, you can contact my office at any time for more information.