Dear Neighbor,
As we head towards a new year and a new legislative session, I want to take a moment to reach out and reflect on the progress made and victories won for the people of our lakeshore district these past twelve months. Together with your perspective and partnership, we’ve been able to deliver solutions to the challenges facing our community, including passing policies and securing funding to support first responders, improve education outcomes, protect Lake St. Clair, and so much more.
In this newsletter, check out our highlights from 2024 and learn more about our work to build a Michigan where everyone can find a good-paying job, raise a family, know their freedoms are protected, and thrive.
As always, I’d love to hear from you about the topics you’re interested in. Please feel free to reach out to share your thoughts or seek assistance with any challenges you may be facing with state departments — we are here to serve you. You can reach my office by emailing SenKHertel@senate.michigan.gov, calling our Lansing office at (517) 373-7315, or calling our district office at (586) 252-2157.
Sincerely,
Kevin Hertel
State Senator
District 12
- Our team has a productive year at the Capitol, introducing 29 bills, getting 18 passed by the Senate, and securing $30 million for Senate District 12 priorities.
- Back in the district, our calendar remained full as we worked to connect with constituents at over 150 community events, including 14 coffee hours and 7 town halls.
This year, I’ve had the privilege of traveling across Senate District 12, engaging with residents, local leaders, and community organizations to hear about their priorities and finding solutions they need. From conversations held over coffee and town halls to discussions at city meetings and community events, these interactions directly shaped the policies my team and I worked on in Lansing.
Over the course of the past year, I introduced 29 bills, getting 18 passed through the Senate. I was also proud to support the work of my colleagues, cosponsoring and voting for many other pieces of impactful legislation.
Below you’ll find my top pieces of legislation that passed this year, along with highlights of investments that we secured for our community. For more information about the other bills I’ve sponsored, click here.
Building Safe Communities and Supporting First Responders
Communities throughout our lakeshore district and across Michigan depend on having reliable and responsive emergency services. Currently, however, Michigan is facing a shortage of paramedics that is putting the health of residents at risk. To address this critical issue, I worked with local fire departments to craft legislation that would cut bureaucratic red tape and reduce financial barriers to entering the profession. This bill was signed into law earlier this spring. Read more about how it will positively impact the state of Michigan here.
Additionally, the Legislature passed my legislation to double survivor benefits for public safety officers. Prior to this legislation, if a public safety officer died or was permanently disabled in the line of duty, the officer’s surviving spouse and dependents were eligible for a one-time payment of $25,000, an amount that had not been updated in two decades. While no amount of money can ever fully repay the debt we owe to these brave safety officers, we can and must do better by them. By raising the benefit amount to $50,000, we can better support the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. This bill was signed into law in October. Read more about it here.
Strengthening Our Home Care System
Care workers truly represent the best of who we are as Michiganders. Every day, home care workers in every corner of our state are supporting folks with disabilities and assisting seniors as they age with dignity — a job that is oftentimes physically and emotionally taxing. Their work is essential to maintaining and strengthening our economy, and without them, our economic system would collapse. But right now, one in six home health care workers live below the poverty line. These are individuals whose lives revolve around providing care for others; yet we are not giving them the resources they need to care for themselves and afford basic necessities like food, rent, and medical care.
From automotive factories to the food service industry, we’ve seen that workers hold more power when they’re united together as one. Individual homecare workers deserve nothing less than the ability to collectively bargain just as workers in all other sectors have. That’s why I introduced legislation to ensure home care workers have the tools they need to secure higher wages, better benefits, and pathways for professional development.
Gov. Whitmer signed this legislation into law in October, restoring bargaining rights for 35,000 home care workers in Michigan. Read more here.
Achieving Transformational Change to Uplift Students and Teachers
Students and the educators who teach them are the foundation for future progress. To ensure that all those in the classroom have the resources needed for success, I worked to bring forward structural, transformational change that unlocks more than $600 million in ongoing funds for school districts across Michigan to pour directly back into the classroom. As a result of this legislation, local school districts will have greater flexibility and resources to put more dollars behind school safety, mental health, teacher salaries, and more.
Additionally, this legislation provides important cost savings for our educators by removing teachers’ required 3% contribution to their health care retirement fund, which is currently 140% funded.
Click here to listen to my interview with WJR and learn more.
Expanding Economic Opportunities and Supporting Community Growth
In our increasingly digital world, data centers power everything from email and social media to search engines and online banking, and with increased investments in artificial intelligence, there is a growing need for more data generation, processing, and storage. As more technology companies look to meet this demand, Michigan has the opportunity to attract multi-billion-dollar data centers to the state that can provide a boost of up to $200 million in local economic activity. This increased local tax revenue can fuel long-term community growth, providing municipalities with the funds needed to improve our schools, fix our roads, and more.
Knowing the positive impact data centers can have on communities across our state, I joined a bipartisan group of colleagues to introduce legislation to position Michigan to better compete for these investments. These bills have passed the Senate and House and have been sent to Gov. Whitmer’s desk for her signature. Read more here.
Other notable pieces of legislation the Senate has passed this term include bills to:
- Strengthen Michigander’s reproductive freedom by expanding access to over-the-counter contraception and protecting personal reproductive health data. Read more here.
- Provide justice for survivors of sexual assault and hold abusers accountable by fixing Michigan’s broken statute of limitations for criminal and civil sexual abuse cases. Read more here.
- Protect seniors and vulnerable adults by strengthening the tools local and state governments have to prevent, detect, and prosecute all forms of elder abuse. Read more here.
- Make child care affordable and accessible for all by expanding tax credits for working parents, modernizing licensing requirements, and streamlining child care subsidies. Read more here.
- Improve Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency system to boost the maximum number of weeks and benefit amount workers could qualify for. Read more here.
- Improve literacy rates by requiring schools to screen students for characteristics of dyslexia and provide evidence-based interventions. Read more here.
Investments to Build Up Our Lakeshore Community
In addition to passing legislation, the Legislature also crafted a meaningful, transformative, and fiscally responsible budget to build up Michigan communities. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I make it a priority to meet with a wide range of folks — from constituents and local leaders to veterans, small business owners, educators, and first responders — to gain insight on their needs and how we can best address them. Crafted with these voices at its heart, our 2025 State Budget presents real solutions to the challenges facing our state, while also setting us up for long-term growth.
In the budget, there were more than $30 million of investments in projects to uplift our lakeshore community. Some of the highlights include:
- $15 million for Selfridge Air National Guard Base (ANGB) to reroute the runway and make other updates necessary for the Harrison Township base to compete for next generation aircraft and future fighter missions.
- $5 million for a housing development project in Mount Clemens to revitalize the old Victory Inn and provide new housing opportunities for young people looking to make their home in Macomb.
- $2 million to repair the break walls at Walter and Mary Burke Park in New Baltimore and $1 million to repair seawalls in Grosse Pointe Shores, helping protect the shoreline, prevent flooding, and deter shore erosion.
- $1.5 million for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments’ water monitoring program to improve the detection of potential contaminants in our water.
- $1 million for the city of Algonac to renovate the Lions Field community swimming pool.
To learn more about the ways we’re building up our community with the 2025 State Budget, click here.
While we were busy delivering legislative wins in Lansing, my team and I also made it a priority to stay in touch with District 12 residents through coffee hours, town halls, and community events.
Throughout this past year, I had the pleasure of meeting with constituents, leaders, and advocates — from Harper Woods to Harsens Island — to hear about what issues matter most to them. With over 200 community engagements on the books for 2024 — I’m thankful for each and every person who took the time to engage with our office.
As we start a new legislative session in January, I invite you to reach out to our team or attend one of our events. Our work is better when it’s informed by the voices of our community. Whether you have concerns to share, ideas for new polices, or simply want to stay informed, your input and involvement in the legislative process is invaluable.
It is one of my top goals as your State Senator to have myself and my office be as accessible to you as possible. To share your thoughts on legislation or seek assistance with an issue, please join me at one of our upcoming district events:
District Office Hours with Staff
WHEN: Every Thursday from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and by appointment
WHERE: District Office, 28800 Harper Ave., Saint Clair Shores, MI 48081
Please note: the office will be closed for the holidays on Thursday, December 26 and Thursday, January 2. We will resume our regular office hours on Thursday, January 9, 2025.
If You Need Help: If you have a problem dealing with any department of state government, such as accessing unemployment benefits, my office is available to help resolve it. While we usually cannot assist with local or federal issues, we will always do our best to help direct you to the appropriate person or organization for help.
You may always feel free to email me at SenKHertel@senate.michigan.gov. You can also call our Lansing Office at (517) 373-7315 or our District Office at (586) 252-2157.
Keep Up to Date: Our bi-weekly newsletters are full of updates on what Team Hertel has been working on both in Lansing and District 12 to deliver results for Michiganders. To keep up to date with what we’ve been up to — sign up here to receive my bi-weekly newsletter, or access previous editions online here.
For more frequent updates, I also encourage you to follow our team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.