Support Local Public Safety, Local Governments, and Local Schools

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State government should not be a jobs program. If we must choose between preserving the job of a bureaucrat in Lansing and that of a local firefighter, I will stand on the side of the firefighter.

As your next state representative, I will push for reforms to the state budget process to ensure stable and predictable levels of state revenue sharing for local governments and school districts.

Top of the list will be to implement a two-year budget cycle, and to ensure full Act 289 funding of local fire departments responsible for protecting state-owned property.

Additionally I will work to:

1. Clean up the patchwork jumble of state laws governing local economic development.
2. Reform the state budget process to ensure full funding of local public safety services.
3. Rein in the state bureaucracy’s growing habit of preempting local government authority and restore local control.
4. Require the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) to seek local government agreement for the siting of new state recreational facilities outside of established state parks and state forest land.
5. Require proof of local zoning and site plan approval for all new private community wastewater treatment systems prior to issuance of state permits.
6. Amend the Michigan Planning and Zoning Enabling Acts to strengthen and promote use of urban service districts to manage future growth and preserve rural open space.