Roy Schmidt for State Representative

Roy Loves Moms Spaghetti Dinner is TONIGHT!

royschmidt — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:56:59 +0000

We hope you’ll join us for the celebration tonight! Spaghetti dinner, scrumptious salads and yummy bread sticks – don’t miss it!

News Release: Representative Roy Schmidt Named “Legislator of the Year” by Michigan Association of Health Plans

royschmidt — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:34:23 +0000

May 2, 2012

Contact: Rep. Roy Schmidt 517-373-0822

Lansing, MI—-State Representative Roy Schmidt announced today that he is honored and humbled to be named as one of two “Legislators of the Year” by the Michigan Association of Health Plans Board of Directors. The award recognizes legislators who have demonstrated initiative and leadership on issues consistent with the MAHP mission of promoting and advocating for high quality, affordable and accessible health care for the citizens of Michigan.

Schmidt, a Grand Rapids Democrat who served on the Health Policy Committee in the last session, is an ardent advocate for health care issues. He has introduced health related legislation in both sessions since his election. He has worked to make sure that budget considerations included care related funding and for making sure that our youngest and oldest citizens have affordable and easy access to heath care.

Rep. Schmidt is proud to share this award with Senator Jim Marleau, R. Lake Orion. They will accept the awards in July at a conference in Traverse City.

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Taxing day? Wait until next year for impact of Republican changes, Grand Rapids Democrats say (Mlive)

royschmidt — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:13:36 +0000

Published: Monday, April 16, 2012, 12:40 PM by Nate Reens (Mlive)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – If Michigan residents are feeling the pain of filing income taxes by Tuesday’s deadline, Democratic state Reps. Brandon Dillon and Roy Schmidt contend that hurt is only going to intensify at this time next year.

Seniors, in 2012, will pay taxes on their pensions for the first time. Others will be hit by reductions of the homestead and earned income tax credits and the elimination of the child tax credit, all part of a $1.6 billion tax reform package shepherded by Republicans through the state legislature last year.

“These changes are going to hurt a lot of people and they may not yet realize it,” Schmidt said at a Monday press conference in Grand Rapids. “You’re going to find out you’ve lost a lot of money.

“You’re going to have less money for groceries, for medicine, for everything. They’ve shifted the burden (from businesses) to poor and middle class families.”

Republicans counter that the elimination of the Michigan Business Tax and other levies on employers were necessary to simplify private industry creating jobs and to improve the state’s economy.

Ari Adler, spokesman for Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, said the results have already been seen with the state going from a projected budget hole of $1.5 billion to a $434 million surplus. Unemployment is dropping and research shows people are coming back to Michigan, Adler said.

“This is familiar rhetoric and it is about trying to preserve a status quo that means many people in Michigan weren’t working,” Adler said. “We’re trying to make this a better place to provide a job and allow people to earn a living.”

Dillon doesn’t buy that explanation, saying the benefits are strictly for “wealthy corporate friends” of Republicans. He says the tax changes haven’t created jobs, crediting the state’s revival to the auto bailouts that boosted manufacturing and other sectors.

He said meetings with residents still produce dismay and anger.

“Every dollar they lose is another dollar that’s not going back to the economy,” Dillon said.

At the Grand Rapids press conference – Democrats across the state are holding similar events – the House members said they’re supporting legislation that would repeal the tax on seniors pensions and restore credits for families.

The Grand Rapids men say they support improving the business climate, but that the replacement for that cash should have been spread more evenly through a tax on services.

Adler disputed the auto bailout as the reason for a change of fortunes.

“It’s a typical Democrat answer,” he said. “What can the government do or spend to fix the economy? What Michigan needed was a tax system that is fair so we could see private industry thriving and creating jobs.”

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/04/taxing_day_wait_until_next_yea.html#incart_river_default

Dense breast tissue raises cancer risk (WOOD TV 8)

royschmidt — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:51:11 +0000

Also makes regular mammograms less effective

Updated: Thursday, 12 Apr 2012, 11:25 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 12 Apr 2012, 9:24 PM EDT

By Brett Thomas

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – One West Michigan woman is on a mission to help inform women that dense breast tissue can increase the risk of cancer — and a mammogram may not be enough to detect it.

Attorney and breast cancer patient Teresa Hendricks said she’s been described as a fighter.

“I think my colleagues would describe me as tenacious and always advocating for the underdog,” said Hendricks.

Now, her fight is to help other women like her who have dense breast tissue – increasing their breast cancer risk.

Nearly 50% of women have dense breast tissue. More than 90% of those women don’t know their breast tissue is dense.

It’s not something that can simply be detected by touch. Doctors say that women can’t necessarily feel the difference between more and less dense tissue, and that doctors themselves can have trouble telling.

“Some patients have mostly fatty tissue, some have a little bit of glandular tissue, and lots of have lots of glandular tissue, so the more glandular tissue, the denser the breasts are,” Dr. Thomas Getz of Spectrum Health explained.

Women with dense breast tissue are four to six times more likely to develop cancer.

The problem is that mammograms are less effective when it comes to detecting cancer in dense tissue breasts. The dense glandular tissue can often obscure cancerous tissue, explained Getz.

The best way to be certain that a woman with dense breasts is cancer-free is use MRI or ultrasound scans, which can often find cancers that are virtually invisible on a mammogram.

But many women don’t know that because they were never told by a doctor or radiologist that they have dense tissue.

That’s what Hendricks said happened to her. She didn’t know that she had a higher risk until after something was already wrong.

“It’s unbelievable that anyone would not tell a woman they need additional screening because they have dense tissue,” said Hendricks.

Hendricks discovered something that felt wrong while doing a self-exam, even though she had been getting regular mammograms for some time.

“Less than six months before I discovered the lump, I had a normal mammogram,” said Hendricks. “I was so vigilant about my mammograms, and no one ever told me that my mammogram wasn’t going to be enough to detect a cancer.”

Hendricks said that doctors and radiologists never talked to her about having dense breast tissue and the possibility that she may need different tests to detect a cancer early.

“If somebody would have given me the right information and enough information for me to act on, I could have avoided my breast cancer or detected it at the earliest stage,” said Hendricks.

Instead, Hendricks had to have both of her breasts removed and underwent chemotherapy for months.

She began making bead chains during the ordeal.

“When you’re going through breast cancer, sometimes you have emotional breakdowns, and I needed something to do with my hands,” she said. “So I made these. … They’re called boob chains.”

The chains consist of a series of beads representing the size of tumor each known method can detect. Starting from the smallest bead — representing the size detectable by a thermagram — and moving up to an MRI, ultrasound, mammogram, and clinical exam. The final and largest bead represents the size of a lump that can be detected through a self-exam.

That’s the size of tumor Hendricks found just months after it was missed by a mammogram.

It is a visual and tactile way to bring attention to the subject and she hopes to eventually use the chains to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research.

But while she kept her hands busy with making chains, her mind was racing. The more she thought about the series of events that had led her to the surgery and chemotherapy, the angrier she became.

“You think its outrageous, and you feel rage, and you want to inform all the women you know,” said Hendricks.

And, she said, it made her think there should be a law. That’s when she began contacting local representatives.

Rep. Roy Schmidt (D-Grand Rapids) is now working to create a law that would require radiologists and doctors to inform patients if their breast tissue is dense and talk to them about what they can do next to help prevent cancer.

“In my three years as a legislator, I have never been more honored to take on a package or challenge like this,” said Schmidt. “The bottom line is, I think this has the potential to save hundreds, thousands, if not millions, of lives.”

But the bill is still in the very early stages of getting passed — and though its future looks promising, as with all bills, there’s the possibility it could never become law.

In the meantime, concerned women can talk to their doctors. They can ask about the density of their breast tissue and whether or not they need more tests.

Much of the information already exists. If a woman has had a mammogram performed on her, then her breast density has already been determined. All she has to do is ask her doctor for her score.

That score is determined on a scale of one to four: One being almost entirely fatty tissue and four being mostly glandular. It is called a BI-RADS score, which stands for Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System.

It is important to note that mammograms are still considered extremely important and are worth having regularly for all women.

But for those with dense tissue, additional tests may be necessary. Women should consult their doctors for their personal and best course of preventive testing.

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/target_8/Dense-breast-tissue-raises-cancer-risk

Two-for-One Special: Schmidt, Dillon to Host Joint April Coffee Hours

royschmidt — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:46:09 +0000

Weekly events allow lawmakers to hear public’s ideas, concerns in Informal setting

GRAND RAPIDS – State Representatives Roy Schmidt (D-Grand Rapids) and Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) are inviting residents to join them for an informal conversation about improving state government at one of their weekly joint coffee hours.

Schmidt and Dillon’s April weekly coffee hours are as follows:

Monday, April 2, 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at The Westsider Cafe, 1180 Walker Ave. NW, Grand Rapids.
Monday, April 9, 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Mr. Burger Restaurant, 2101 Lake Michigan Drive NW, Grand Rapids.
Monday, April 16, 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Fat Boy Burgers, 2450 Plainfield Ave. NE, Grand Rapids.
Monday, April 23, 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Omelette Shoppe, 1880 Breton Road SE, Grand Rapids.

The lawmakers host these regular coffee hours at the same locations on Mondays of each month to hear directly from the community, discuss issues that are important to local families and share ideas over a cup of coffee. Schmidt and Dillon also encourage residents to contact them at any time by visitingwww.RepSchmidt.com and www.RepDillon.com. While there, residents can sign up for their e-newsletters, which provide brief updates of their work at the Capitol and in Grand Rapids.

http://076.housedems.com/news/article/two-for-one-special-schmidt-dillon-to-host-joint-april-coffee-hours

State Reps. Brandon Dillon and Roy Schmidt host Town Hall meeting Tuesday (Mlive)

royschmidt — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:47:18 +0000

Published: Monday, April 09, 2012, 2:05 PM Updated: Monday, April 09, 2012, 2:21 PM

By Nate Reens (Mlive Group)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Grand Rapids residents will have the ear of two state Democratic lawmakers, a county commissioner and a community organizer at a Town Hall meeting on the city’s Southeast Side Tuesday.

Brandon Dillon and Roy Schmidt will attend the meeting, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Baxter Community Center, that also brings together County Commissioner Candace Chivis, former County Commissioner Paul Mayhue and LINC co-executive director Darel Ross.

The community leaders will discuss jobs, education issues and entrepreneurial opportunities.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/04/state_reps_brandon_dillon_and.html

“MDOT: Pothole issue could grow larger than ever if road funding doesn’t increase” (Detroit Free Press)

royschmidt — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:57:47 +0000

March 28, 2012

Matt Helms

Potholes on Michigan’s roads in 10 years will surpass the lousy conditions of the late 1990s, when driver outrage sparked the state’s last gas tax increase, unless lawmakers find a way to boost spending to keep highways from deteriorating, officials warned today.

Without an infusion of road money, the conditions on Michigan’s expressways and major state roads will slip from the current 89% in good or fair condition to more than half in poor shape by 2012, Michigan Department of Transportation Director Kirk Steudle said this morning during a press conference unveiling a new report that outlines the risk of letting the state’s transportation network deteriorate.

“Where we’re headed is worse than where we started,” Steudle said of the late 1990s low-point when lawmakers and a reluctant Gov. John Engler raised the state’s gasoline tax by 4 cents a gallon amid widespread anger over dangerously potholed highways.

The new report by TRIP, a Washington-based transportation research group funded primarily by the construction industry, said 35% of Michigan’s major roads are in poor condition. If funding levels state the same, that number will nearly double, to 65%, because the state will be able to do less with the money it has, as costs rise and repair needs mount.

TRIP’s policy and research director, Frank Moretti, said the state’s lawmakers and voters face tough decisions. But, while raising more money for roads might mean raising fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees, the payoff is in lower annual households costs from the effects of bad roads: congestion, traffic crashes and vehicle damage.

TRIP estimates bad roads cost the average Michigan household $3,014 a year, a number it expects to rise to $3,649 by 2022. If the state invested more to improve road conditions, the household cost from those bad roads would decline to $1,745 a year, by TRIP’s estimate.

A bipartisan legislative report by state Reps. Rick Olson, R-Saline, and Roy Schmidt, D-Grand Rapids, last year documented $1.4 billion in additional road needs each year and called for the state to boost its spending by that much or face drastic declines in road and bridge conditions. Last week, Olson and Schmidt revised that number upward to $1.5 billion a year, saying delays are only adding to the tab.

“We are losing this game every month that we delay,” Steudle said. “If we aren’t willing to pay now, we will have to pay much more later.”

Steudle noted that help from Washington for Michigan and other states isn’t likely, noting that Congress hasn’t been able to pass a long-term transportation bill over disagreements on spending levels.House Republicans, for one, recently called for a 36% cut to federal Highway Trust Fund spending, while President Barack Obama proposes increasing highway funding.

Michigan lawmakers have proposed increasing vehicle registration fees, raising wholesale gas taxes and other measures, but transportation-spending bills have been stalled, Steudle said.

More on the TRIP report is available at www.tripnet.org.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120328/NEWS06/120328038/MDOT-Pothole-issue-could-grow-larger-than-ever-if-road-funding-doesn-t-increase?odyssey=nav%7Chead

“Business leaders fear foot-dragging in Lansing when it comes to eliminating personal property tax” (Mlive)

royschmidt — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:56:08 +0000

Monday, March 26, 2012

Jim Harger

CALEDONIA TOWNSHIP, MI – Business leaders who want the state’s personal property tax eliminated say they fear the state legislatures will kick the can down the road to 2016.

At a breakfast sponsored by the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce Monday, one attendee asked why there isn’t a greater sense of urgency to eliminate the tax on imposed on all equipment, furniture, computers and other fixtures in commercial, industrial and utility properties.

“Any comment why we can’t move more quickly?” asked William Lievense, a lobbyist with the Capitol Group. “I don’t know that it sends a strong signal to the business community when our neighboring states are in the process of phasing this out.”

Legislators said they expect legislation to be introduced this week that will begin removing the tax.

While business interests want to see the tax eliminated because it is not levied in neighboring states, many local communities depend on the money they get from the tax to fund vital services.

Some are saying should take up to nine years to phase out the tax to cushion the blow on local communities.

“We’re trying to strike a balance between the loss of revenue and getting rid of the tax,” said State Sen. Dave Hildenbrand, as Lowell Republican whose district includes the city of Grand Rapids.

“We’re trying to be sensitive to those who count on that $1.2 billion,” Hildenbrand said. “The bills are still being drafted, but a phase-out is more likely to happen than overnight elimination.”

State Rep. Roy Schmidt, D-Grand Rapids, said he wants to see a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a replacement for the personal property tax for local governments.

“I think it’s a horrible tax. But we’ve been totally ripping off our local governments over the years,” said Schmidt, who served as a Grand Rapids city commissioner for 16 years.

State Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, said he does not believe a replacement for the tax should be assumed. “That makes the assumption it’s being efficiently spent,” he said.

Last week, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley proposed eliminating the tax only on industrial properties, which represents about $425 million of the total $1.2 billion collected from the tax in 2010.

Calley said his proposal offers relief for industrial properties that can locate anywhere while commercial and utility properties are less likely to leave Michigan because they need to be in the markets they serve.

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2012/03/business_leaders_fear_foot-dra.html

West Michigan lawmakers differ on statewide transit funding during Grand Rapids discussion (Mlive)

royschmidt — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:22:49 +0000

Friday, March 23, 2012

By Zane McMillin The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Polite partisan ribbing and divergent viewpoints on how to address pressing state transportation infrastructure issues dominated a Friday afternoon panel discussion among six West Michigan lawmakers.

The panel of four Republicans and two Democrats debated before 100-plus transit advocates at New Hope Baptist Church, 130 Delaware St. NW, during the Kent County Legislative Lunch on Transit, hosted by Disability Advocates of Kent County.

The lawmakers debated, among other things, transit funding, the state’s gas tax and pros and cons of Gov. Rick Snyder’s $3.3 billion transportation budget unveiled earlier this year.

The partisan conversation, though never hostile, included verbally acknowledged differences of opinion, especially about transit funding in light of statewide economic uncertainties across a broad spectrum.

The participants, by and large, agreed sound transportation infrastructure is crucial for Michigan residents and commerce while noting other financial considerations largely have trumped spending to maintain crumbling roads, railroads and the like.

“We all have different visions on what this should look like and what our investment should be, and that’s what we’re debating,” said state Sen. Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell.

“Some want to spend billions and billions more on transportation and have gold plated sidewalks,” he added. “We have to strike a balance between what we need and what we demand and ask of the taxpayers of Michigan.”

Hildenbrand predicated this notion on Snyder’s budget proposal, which indicated the state needs to spend about $1.4 billion more each for transportation infrastructure than it already does just to maintain current levels of maintenance.

“I don’t have a problem with chipping away at it,” Hildenbrand said of finding additional roads funding. “I think that’s a responsible way to move forward, make sure we’re spending every dollar efficiently.”

But state Rep. Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids, said that approach fails to account for the long-term and ultimately will lead to the state spending billions more each year for maintenance.

“At the end of the day after we get through this year, … we’re going to have to do more than just look at a couple cents here a couple cents there,” Dillon said. “The $1.4 billion is going to go up every year we talk about it.”

As far as priorities go, though, state Sen. Mark Jansen, R-Gaines Township, argued issues such as Michigan residents’ floundering mortgages and shoring up the state’s debt are top priorities before ample funds can be diverted to transit projects.

“Transit isn’t transit by itself,” Jansen said. “It’s not all about just transit, it’s about trying to get all the pieces together.”

State Rep. Tom Hooker, R-Byron Center, equated finding money for transportation spending to a homeowners’ finances.

Hooker analogized a recent episode where his roof was in need of repair, and he had to find a way to shift around his personal funds to fix the problem.

“We’ve got to at least not lose ground on these roads and in our transportation and in our infrastructure, but I think we have to be very patient in realizing there is not one of us that can do all of those projects at once, at home and in the state of Michigan,” Hooker said. “There’s debt, and that debt also needs to be paid because that continues to build and add interest. All of those things play a part in our decision-making process.”

State Rep. Ken Yonker, R-Caledonia, pointed to transit problems being caused by a decade or more of dwindling gas tax revenues.

Yonker said less gas tax money has gone to the state because hundreds of thousands of residents left the state, adding economic turmoil has changed the driving habits of residents who stayed.

But Yonker, like his Republican counterparts on the panel, said the state’s transportation woes should not necessarily translate to gas or other tax increases.

“We can get increased income without raising taxes again, just because of the larger consumption of the fuel,” Yonker said.

During closing remarks, state Rep. Roy Schmidt, D-Grand Rapids, said it is not a matter of if lawmakers will act, but when.

“The bottom line is we have to act,” Schmidt said, “and it’s going to be whenever the Senate says its going to be, because they’re in charge, but were happy to work with them.”

Note: State Reps. Peter MacGregor, R-Rockford, Lisa Posthumus Lyons, R-Alto, and Dave Agema, R-Grandville, had been invited to participate in Friday’s panel but did not.

But will they vote for it? West Michigan lawmakers say they back NITC Detroit-Windsor bridge (Mlive)

royschmidt — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:20:40 +0000

Friday, March 23, 2012

By Jeff T. Wattrick Detroit News

A bipartisan group of west Michigan legislators discussed transportation policy at a Kent County Legislative Lunch at Grand Rapid’s New Hope Baptist Church. Most said they would support the proposed New International Trade Crossing Detroit-Windsor bridge.

The NITC plan is supported by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, the government of Canada, the Big Three, Amway, the UAW, and several locals Chambers of Commerce across the state including the Detroit Regional Chamber.

“[Rep. Roy Schmidt (D)] is wrong 90% of the time and Representative[Brandon] Dillon is wrong 99% of the time,” Republican Rep. Ken Yonker joked about his two Democratic colleagues on the panel. “But Roy is absolutely 100% right about this. I’m totally behind him on this…I look at this agreement the governor has put together, it’s a business contract. It’s pretty straight-forward. One of our biggest assets we have in the state is our international border. This is a great opportunity to capitalize on this without using our money.”

The government of Canada agreed to pay the $550 million needed to build toll and customs plazas on the Michigan side of the border. They would recoup that cost from Michigan’s share of the toll revenue. Once the debt is paid, then a certain percentage of NITC toll revenue would go to the state treasury.

The lone dissenter in the group was Republican Sen. Mark Jansen.

“There are concerns that I have about the path that we are on,” said Jansen. “Mr. Moroun isn’t perfect in this thing, the city of Detroit isn’t perfect in this thing, Canada is not, Michigan is not, the U.S. is not.”

He added: “You have a big donor coming in and not treating somebody as fairly as they could be, but also having a person who is not being treated with respect the way that they could be.”

Rep. Thomas Hooker (R) said Governor Snyder and other NITC-backers need to do a better job selling the bridge project to Michigan voters.

“If I quizzed 75% of my district, they would say don’t build it, because of the advertising and because of the half-truths that have been put out, “Hooker said. “We have to represent the district that we have. So there is going to have to be some education, some recognition of what’s going to happen before our people are ready to move forward.”

The six legislators on the panel were Schmidt, Yonker, Jansen, Sen. Dave Hildenbrand, Dillon, and Hooker.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/03/but_will_they_vote_for_it_west.html