Hello!
I hope you’ve had a great month! Here in the Michigan Senate, my colleagues and I have continued to work hard to complete passage of the first six bills the Senate and House Dems introduced in January. Read on for details on that effort, good news from the district, and upcoming events!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Upcoming Town Hall with Sen. McMorrow
Save the date for my upcoming Town Hall on Saturday.
WHEN: Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 11 am WHERE: Royal Oak High School, 1500 Lexington Blvd, Royal Oak, MI 48073
Upcoming Town Hall with Sen. McMorrow
To RSVP, click here.
DISTRICT UPDATES
DTE Outages
On February 23, ice storms moved across Michigan, causing outages from Lake Michigan to Lake Erie. As of 10 a.m. that day, there were more than 500,000 DTE customers without power and more than 2,000 downed power lines. The following weekend, there was a snowstorm that resulted in even more outages. I was in constant communication with DTE to try to push them to expedite power restoration as much as possible. However, long-term, we must push for greater accountability and adapting our grid to better withstand our new normal with more frequent weather events and this will continue to be a focus of mine.
The length of these outages, in freezing temperatures, is completely unacceptable. The frequency of outages and lack of reliability is completely unacceptable. I hear you and I’m as frustrated and angry as you are.
I’ve been asking for hearings and am glad my colleagues who chair the House and Senate energy committees have committed to holding them. The House held their hearing last week, and the Senate is scheduled to host theirs Thursday.
I also did a brief video update on my Facebook page about the outages after I met with the president of DTE. If you missed it, you can watch it here.Bailey Cathedral Event
Recently, Bailey Cathedral Church of God in Detroit celebrated its 50th year. I was delighted to attend their event, hosted by Bishop Marcus R. Ways, to commemorate this wonderful occasion. I was also happy to present a tribute to Bishop Ways to celebrate 50 years of Bailey Cathedral.
March is Reading Month!
This past Monday, I visited Bagley Elementary in Detroit to kick off several school visits in honor of March is Reading Month. Thanks for having me!
Additional Updates
Recently, The Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers 10 Best New Restaurants and More was announced. Listed in the Best New Restaurants category were Petty Cash, serving craft cocktails and small plates inspired my West Africa, on Livernois in Detroit and Employee Meal on Old Woodward in Birmingham where anything goes but the consistent highlight is the Mexican cooking from family recipes. I hope you have the chance to visit both!
The Michigan High School Athletic Association has selected 14 student-athletes from Class A member schools to receive $2000 scholarships through the MHSAA / Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award program. Two of the recipients are Jane Barnett from Royal Oak and Ella Blank from Birmingham Groves. Their scholarships are based on achievement and leadership in athletics and activities, as well as responses to essay questions. They had to have at least a 3.5 GPA and have a letter in a varsity sport. They and all the recipients will be recognized March 25 during the MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing. Congratulations to Jane and Ella!Stay connected with us!
As a reminder, (almost) every Friday at 10:30 am, I host a virtual coffee hour where I go over what happened in Lansing that week, share happy updates from the district, and take questions from viewers! Follow me on Facebook here.
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UPDATES FROM LANSING
In early January, Senate and House Democrats introduced six major initiatives that we would working on passing including:
- Tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit or “EITC”,
- Reforming the retirement tax,
- Expanding worker protections by repealing so-called “Right to Work”,
- Reinstating Prevailing Wage,
- Expansion of Elliott Larsen to include gender identity and sexual orientation,
- Repealing the 1931 abortion ban from the MI constitution to be in line with the passage of Prop 3.
See below for details on each:Lowering MI Cost Legislation
The legislature passed HB 4001, or the Lowering MI Cost bill, which includes both EITC expansion and the retirement tax reform.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed the legislation, which is one of the biggest tax relief initiatives Michigan has seen in decades. The plan will overhaul the unfair and unpopular retirement tax, expand the Working Families Tax Credit, and make significant investments in housing and community development.
By expanding the Working Families Tax Credit to 30 percent of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, 700,000 Michiganders—those who have the hardest time affording the basics—will see an average of $3,150 dollars back in their pockets. Phasing out the unfair and unpopular retirement tax over four years will ultimately put an average of $1,000 back in the pockets of 500,000 households. The Lowering MI Costs plan also invests $50 million of surplus tax revenue in the state’s Housing and Community Development Fund, which prioritizes projects offering veterans, seniors, people with disabilities, and working families safe, affordable places to call home. This is significant, sustainable and ongoing dedicated funding to affordable housing.Worker Protections Package Passes MI Legislature
My Democratic colleagues and I voted to approve legislation revoking Michigan’s decade-old Right to Work labor policy with a $1 million appropriation remaining intact.
Right to work laws severely limit Unions from being able to protect their workers and also lead to lower wages and worse working conditions on average, compared to non-RTW states.
Read more about this legislation here.Expansion of Elliot Larsen Civil Rights to include LGBTQ Community
The LGBTQ community was added to the state’s Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act under legislation that passed both the Senate and the House, marking the first time a Michigan legislative chamber has voted to add these protections to state law. This is an incredible win for equality and opportunity here in Michigan. I was able to attend a roundtable in my district with Governor Whitmer, Rep. Hoskins and Senator Moss a couple weeks ago (pictured below), and each person at the table shared how this legislation would change their lives. I was honored to vote yes and to see this finally become law. Governor Whitmer held the bill signing at Urban Beat in Lansing last week.
ELCRA roundtable at Bobcat Bonnie’s in Ferndale
1931 Abortion Ban Repeal
On International Women’s Day, the Michigan Senate Democrats passed much-needed legislation to repeal Michigan’s 1931 statute that criminalizes abortion care. This legislation already passed the House, and will go the governor’s desk next.
Almost 2.5 million Michiganders—56.7 percent of voters—voted last November to create a constitutional right to reproductive freedom and protect women, their bodies and their rights. When this archaic and dangerous law was passed, women only had the federal right to vote for a little over a decade. With this legislation, we are telling Michigan women and their nurses and doctors that we trust them to make these deeply personal decisions, and we’re doing that by getting rid of this harmful area of the law that says otherwise.Supplemental Budget Investments
SB 7 was a $1.34 billion supplemental appropriations package that contains funding for a number of important priorities, including: water affordability, hospital staffing retention, nursing home rate increases, health workforce stabilization, community violence intervention, housing, and community and neighborhood grants. This passed out of the Senate before the end of January, the earliest a bill has reached the governor’s desk since 1947.
Read more about this supplemental budget here.I also introduced my first bills of my second term and have shared a bit about each one below.Gun Violence Prevention bills
In light of the tragic events that unfolded at Michigan State University, myself and my colleagues presented a Gun Violence Prevention bill package that is made up of 11 bills, including one I’m proud to sponsor, SB 083–otherwise known as a “red flag” law–which would allow Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) to be issued in cases of citizens posing reported and verified threats to the safety of themselves and others. While the shooting at MSU pushed us to introduce this legislation faster than our original timeline, I want to reiterate that these are bills we have been working on for four years, and we put in a lot of time with stakeholders and the policy team to make sure we got them right. These bills passed out of the Senate last week on Thursday, and the House will take them up next.
Wayne State University and Governor Whitmer Announce New Initiative
Governor Gretchen Whitmer joined Wayne State University officials to announce the Wayne State Guarantee, a new initiative offering incoming Michigan students with family incomes of $70,000 or less a tuition-free degree with zero out-of-pocket expenses. The program will begin in the fall of 2023 and cover the full cost of tuition and standard fees. This is made possible thanks to the bipartisan Michigan Achievement Scholarship program, which Governor Whitmer signed into law in 2022, saving students up to $8,250 on their associate degree at a community college, up to $20,000 at a private college, or up to $27,500 at a public university.
Who’s Eligible for the Wayne State Guarantee?
- Incoming first-year undergraduates who are Michigan residents admitted for fall 2023 as a first-time undergraduate in a degree-program.
- Household income of $70,000 or less and assets of $50,000 or less as confirmed on the 2023-24 FAFSA.
- Michigan residents eligible for the Pell grant in 2023-24 are also eligible. Must be enrolled full time (12 or more credit hours per semester) each semester. Funding is for the fall and winter semesters.
- WSU must receive your 2023-24 FAFSA by April 1, 2023, and be eligible to receive federal student aid.
- Must be admitted to WSU by April 1, 2023.
The Wayne State Guarantee covers the full cost of tuition and standard fees (matriculation, registration, and student service fees) with a combination of federal, state, and other WSU scholarships and grants. The award is renewable for up to four years, with the option to apply for a fifth year if the student is on track to graduate in that year.
Again, I hope to see you next Saturday at my town hall in Royal Oak, or on one of our virtual coffee hours coming up. Take care.
Till next time,
Mallory McMorrowState SenatorDistrict 8