Dear Neighbor,
Up in Lansing, our team has been busy working to craft a fiscally responsible state budget while also passing a slate of meaningful legislation to address the challenges facing our community. In recent weeks, we have been moving legislation to improve health outcomes for Michiganders, protect seniors, address our paramedic shortage and more.
In this newsletter, I’m excited to share more information on all of this progress, as well as recognize June as Gun Violence Awareness month and the work we’re doing to build a future free from gun violence.
As always, I’d love to hear from you about the topics you’re interested in. Please feel free to reach out to my office to share your perspective 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 calling (517) 373-7315 or emailing SenKHertel@senate.michigan.gov. I hope to hear from you soon!
Sincerely,
Kevin Hertel
State Senator
District 12
Included in This Newsletter
- Legislative Update
- Building Up Michigan: Senate Passes 2025 State Budget
- Pairing Thoughts and Prayers with Action
- Reflecting on Two Years Since Dobbs
- Upcoming Events
- Contact Us
Legislative Update
Transitioning Michigan to a State-Based Health Insurance Exchange
Every Michigan family deserves to have a bright and healthy future. That’s why throughout my time in the Legislature, I have been laser focused on improving access to quality healthcare and boosting health outcomes for Michiganders. For more than a year, my team and I have spent countless hours meeting with healthcare professionals, insurance providers and patients to craft legislation that would help us achieve this goal through establishing a state-based health insurance exchange here in Michigan. This week, this legislative package — Senate Bills 633–638 — was passed by the Senate.
By shifting our healthcare exchange from the federal platform to a state-based one, we’ll have greater autonomy and flexibility to take a more tailored approach to best meet the healthcare needs of all Michiganders. More specifically, under this plan, the revenue generated by the exchange would stay in our state rather than be returned to the federal government, allowing us to reduce costs, improve efficiency, lower uninsured rates, bolster efforts to reach underserved communities, and more.
This package now heads to the Michigan House for their consideration. Read more about this legislation here.
Introducing Legislation to Protect Seniors and Vulnerable Adults
Elderly individuals and vulnerable adults are at high risk of being subject to abuse and exploitation at the hands of family members, friends, or other close associates. To protect Michiganders from this harm, I joined my colleagues to introduce a four-bill package which would enhance protections for vulnerable adults by strengthening penalties for abuse and financial exploitation offenses and developing programs to bolster prevention efforts.
My bill in the package, Senate Bill 924, would prohibit an individual from using or obtaining a vulnerable adult’s money or property through fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, coercion, or unjust enrichment during and after the vulnerable adult’s lifetime. Under current statute, a person is only explicitly prohibited from these deceitful activities during a vulnerable adult’s life. By strengthening the tools our criminal justice system has available to prosecute cases of fraud, we can ensure that offenders who continue their schemes posthumously face the same penalties as if the exploitation had occurred while the vulnerable adult was alive.
This package has been referred to the committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety. Read more about this legislation here.
Providing Economic Relief for Michigan Teachers
Every day, teachers educate and empower students, laying the foundation for the next generation of leaders. While their work is vital to the future of our state, they have been underpaid and undervalued for too long. In recent years, we’ve seen teacher salaries in Michigan slip below the national average, making it difficult for many to make ends meet.
Currently, some teachers pay a 3% tax on their income that goes into a health care fund for retirement, also known as OPEB. The state of Michigan and local school districts also pay into this fund to ensure teachers can have lifetime medical, dental and vision coverage. The OPEB is approximately 140% funded, with an excess of $670 million. This presents us with a historic opportunity to bring substantial cost savings to our educators.
As a result, I introduced Senate Bill 911 which would eliminate the 3% health care contribution requirement for school employees, allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned money. This legislation would also help us attract new folks to the profession — a particularly important benefit as our state faces unprecedented teacher recruitment and retention issues.
Expanding Municipalities’ Toolbox for Building Strong, Vibrant Downtowns
Earlier this month, the Senate passed Senate Bill 700 which would modify the definition of a downtown district to allow a municipality to have one or more separate and distinct geographic areas in a business district if the municipality contains a mainland and one or more islands that are separated by a body of water.
Currently, communities are only permitted to have a single Downtown Development Authority (DDA) which utilizes tax increment financing to fund improvements to buildings or infrastructure within the district, opens up opportunities for grant funding, and more. This expanded DDA definition would unlock opportunities for unique communities across our state. More specifically, this legislation would provide Clay Township with the ability and the tools they need to revitalize the downtown Sans Souci area on Harsens Island, boosting local entrepreneurship and driving economic development, without detracting from the township’s downtown space on the mainland.
Read more about this legislation and its impact in our press release here or in the Voice’s news article here.
Addressing Michigan’s Paramedic Shortage
Across Michigan, there are approximately 1,000 unfilled paramedic roles that put the health of our communities at risk. To address this shortage, I worked with local firefighters to craft Senate Bill 249 that would open up new pathways to becoming a paramedic. And in exciting news: Governor Whitmer signed this legislation into law!
This bill establishes the Michigan Only License for paramedics, allowing them to receive accreditation through a state-administered exam instead of only having a national exam option. By cutting this bureaucratic red tape, we are reducing the financial barriers to becoming a paramedic. The legislation also updates exams for emergency medical services (EMS) personnel and requires non-accredited education program sponsors to give specific notices.
You can read more about this legislation here.
Building Up Michigan: Senate Passes 2025 State Budget
After months of working to craft a meaningful, transformative, and fiscally responsible budget, the Michigan Senate finally got it done! This week, my colleagues and I passed our state budget for the 2025 Fiscal Year that takes an innovative approach to tackling the pressing needs of all Michiganders — from kids and seniors to small businesses and local communities.
This budget will help us build up Michigan, investing millions of dollars to improve our state’s future, including by:
- Building up Michigan’s kids in every way by making significant investments in maternal and infant health and child care;
- Building up Michigan’s students and workers, their skills, and their opportunities for a better life through targeted training and work supports, free community college for all, and support for small business owners, farmers, and entrepreneurs;
- Building up Michiganders’ savings and helping lower costs, including expanded preschool options for 5,000 Michigan families and lowered housing costs; and
- Literally building up Michigan, making significant investments to build more housing and fix our roads, bridges, and water infrastructure.
I’m excited to share more in the coming days and weeks about the budget and the direct impact it will have on folks across our lakeshore community. We’ll be sharing updates here in our newsletters as well as on our social media (Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).
For more information, you can also visit SenateDems.com/budget.
Pairing Thoughts and Prayers with Action
From big cities to small rural towns, gun violence plagues Michiganders in every corner of our state, leaving an irrevocable mark on too many lives. As Michigan families hug their loved ones a little tighter after the three mass shootings that occurred during the weekend of June 15, including at Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad in Rochester Hills, the need to address this crisis is more urgent than ever.
Every June, we recognize National Gun Violence Awareness Month to honor communities shattered by gun violence and raise awareness of this growing issue. Earlier this month, I spent time meeting with student advocates from Grosse Pointe North High School. These students have grown up in the “school shooting generation” — never knowing a reality without active shooter drills. Despite this, they reject the belief that this pain and trauma is normal, and they have been working to change this reality.
The years-long organizing endeavors of young people like them have been a driving force behind the life-saving laws that recently took effect in our state. Following the shooting at Michigan State last year which claimed the lives of three students — two of who were from the Grosse Pointe and Harper Woods communities — my colleagues and I paired our thoughts and prayers with action to help prevent future tragedies.
Our caucus immediately got to work to introduce key pieces of legislation that close loopholes in our state laws and provide communities with the tools they need to keep families and loved ones safe. Included in the legislative package was my bill to strengthen background checks which help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. In addition to this common-sense measure, we also passed legislation to:
- Promote safe storage by creating child access protection laws to keep legal firearms safely and securely stored and out of the hands of children and teens. Learn how you can obtain a free gun lock from the Michigan State Police or the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services here.
- Allow courts to issue Extreme Risk Protection Orders to temporarily intervene and suspend a person’s access to firearms if they show clear warning signs of violence and pose an immediate threat to themselves or others.
- Protect survivors of domestic violence by preventing those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes from possessing, using, purchasing or carrying a firearm in Michigan for eight years.
- Prevent armed voter intimidation by prohibiting an individual from possessing a firearm at or near election spaces such as a polling place, an early voting site, or an absentee ballot drop box, to ensure voters can cast their ballot safely and without undue influence.
As we work to build safe communities for all Michiganders to enjoy, I remain committed to advancing evidence-based solutions to address this public health crisis. To learn more about our efforts to create a future free from gun violence, click here.
Reflecting on Two Years Since Dobbs
This week marked the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, dismantling five decades of legal precedent and threatening access to safe and legal abortions across the country. After that disastrous and dangerous decision, Michigan voters stepped up, spoke up, and headed to the ballot box to protect the right to choose.
In the Senate, my colleagues and I have been fighting to uphold Michiganders’ reproductive freedom, taking action to:
- Repeal the 1931 abortion ban which included no exceptions for rape or incest.
- Pass the Reproductive Health Act which breaks down barriers to accessing reproductive care by repealing medically unnecessary regulations that are only imposed upon abortion care facilities.
- Eliminate unnecessary huddles for IVF and surrogacy, allowing Michiganders more ways to grow their family.
Politicians should not get to determine if, when, or how someone chooses to have a child. As we continue to see attacks on reproductive rights across the country, we’ll keep fighting to ensure every Michigander has the right and ability to make their own health care decisions.
Upcoming Events
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:
Nonprofit Town Hall
On Tuesday, July 23, Phil Gilchrist of Advancing Macomb will be joining me and State Rep. Denise Mentzer for a town hall event designed to share strategies to help nonprofits become established and secure essential resources to achieve success.
Whether you are part of a new nonprofit, thinking of starting one, or looking to enhance your organization’s impact, this event is designed to provide the guidance and support you need. We hope to see you there!
WHEN: Tuesday, July 23 from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 5:30 p.m.)
WHERE: Mount Clemens Public Library, 150 Cass Avenue, Mount Clemens, MI 48043
Conversations by the Lake with Commissioner Candice Miller
From Grosse Pointe to Harsens Island, Lake St. Clair is what binds the communities of Senate District 12 together. The lake provides so much to our daily lives, including drinking water, economic prosperity, and recreational opportunities. Taking advantage of the summer weather, our team is hosting a series of Conversations by the Lake to talk about the investments we’re making in clean water infrastructure and the proactive ways we can work together to protect this unmatched natural resource.
For our St. Clair Shores conversation, we’ll be joined by Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller and Mayor Kip Walby.
WHEN: Monday, July 29 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
WHERE: Blossom Heath Beach House, 24800 Jefferson Avenue, St. Clair Shores, MI 48080
Coffee and Conversation
WHEN: Monday, August 19 from 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: St. Clair Shores Senior Center, 20100 Stephens Street, St. Clair Shores, MI 48080
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, Saint Clair Shores, MI 48081
Contact Us
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 call my office at (517) 373-7315 or email me at SenKHertel@senate.michigan.gov.
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.