Published on Mlive.com, February 9, 2012 by Monica Scott.

GRAND RAPIDS – State Rep. Roy Schmidt, D-Grand Rapids, says there is reason for concern about the education budget Gov. Rick Snyder discussed today, especially for urban districts like Grand Rapids schools.

“There is no increase in the per-pupil foundation allowance, and schools will have to jump through hoops to meet best practices in order to get any additional money at all,” Schmidt said. “We are most concerned about maintaining the categorical funding; money urban schools really need to serve their students and families.”

Grand Rapids school leaders are fearful the district could lose $9.5 million, if lawmakers pursue plans to eliminate the categorical funding – special purpose grants that aid high-poverty, high-need school districts. The district is already out to $2.4 million in the funding, either in reductions or eliminations.

For example, the $2.9 million to keep class sizes low in kindergarten through third grade was reduced by $900,000.

The grants for declining enrollment and bilingual education were eliminated. Preliminary Wednesday figures from the state required student head count indicate the district is down a 100 students from last fall to 18,000.

Schmidt said the governor’s education budget gives slightly more money to our schools, but then forces schools to compete for that money by meeting best practices and that concerns him. He said Grand Rapids Public Schools is a leader in adopting and adapting to new concepts and practices.

But said there is a practical limit to all of this.

“The cold fact is all of our schools are struggling because of the massive funding cuts he forced on our kids last year,” he said. “This year schools are cutting back on classes and programs, finding it harder to supply our kids with text books, and having to crowd more kids into classrooms.”

“We need good schools to attract new businesses and industries to our community, and to me this education budget doesn’t provide enough to get us on that road.”

Schmidt and other West Michigan lawmakers recently met with Grand Rapids schools interim Superintendent Teresa Neal and school board members.

Email: mscott2@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter at Twitter.com/GRPScotty.

My good friend and colleague, state Rep. Lisa Lyons, R-Alto, recently penned a column trumpeting her personal and her party’s support for lifting the cap on charter schools in Michigan. She does a good job of explaining their rationale for the bill. The column is also proof that there is a lack of factual evidence to support the expansion.

The facts as we know them suggest that, as charter schools enter into urban areas, they are experiencing the same issues that face traditional public schools. Test scores in charter schools as a whole are no longer on the rise; they are coming in line with public schools. Those in suburban areas are faring better than those in urban areas.

So, as the data gets sorted out, I am hoping that my Republican colleagues will land on the same page we Democrats have been on for quite some time. The issue isn’t about teachers, their unions or inefficient administrations as much as it is about the student populations coming from impoverished neighborhoods with high unemployment, lack of opportunity and all too many negative life choices. The seemingly never-ending pursuit of a silver bullet to fix our urban problems goes on, just as impotent as ever.

As a representative and former city commissioner representing a core urban area, I support charter schools, especially those with proven track records of success and best management practices. The thing to remember is that those operations are successful because of a carefully planned and executed growth model.

Lifting the cap will only flood the market with less qualified operators with no factual support for fixing our education problems. Until we can honestly and forthrightly face the issues of poverty and high unemployment, all the charter schools in the world won’t make a difference in advancing students from the notion of a dead end life.

I say no to eliminating the cap on charter schools.

I say yes to getting everyone in Lansing to get on the same page about job creation so struggling families can get back on their feet. If we concentrate on expanding the middle class and restoring hope to people who see none in their lives, we will begin to end the cycle of poverty and our schools’ test results will reflect the outcomes.

Rep. Roy Schmidt, D-Grand Rapids, serves the 76th District. He is a former Grand Rapids City Commissioner.

By Ed Golder, The Grand Rapids Press

One of the big questions coming out of Gov. Rick Snyder’s special message on infrastructure last week involves money.

OK, that’s probably not just one of the questions.

It’s the question – and the subject of this week’s Michigan Politics Minute video with Press staffers Ed Golder and Jim Harger.

Specifically, will the governor and Legislature push for some way – a tax or fee increase — to put more funding into the state’s crumbling roads?

A recent bipartisan legislative report– co-chaired by Reps. Roy Schmidt, D-Grand Rapids, and Rick Olson, R-Saline — found that Michigan needs an additional $1.4 billion a year just to keep its current roads, highways and bridges in decent shape.

That’s not the kind of cash you find floating around in the family minivan’s seat cushions.

Still, it’s not a new number. The legislative report confirms the findings of an earlier Transportation Funding Task Force put together by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. That report found what many bone-jarred drivers across the state know: The state hasn’t invested enough in its roads.

“Transit investment in Michigan is half to one-tenth the investment made by other populated, economically diverse states like New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, even Minnesota and Delaware,” the report stated.

If nothing is done roads will only get worse – and more costly to repair – in the next decade. That is especially so since gas taxes, the principal source of road funds, are in steady decline. In the future, more fuel-efficient cars will further deplete gas tax revenues.

The governor raised several possible solutions to that problem. One he mentioned, but didn’t particularly advocate, is to raise vehicle registration fees by $120. Registration fees are the other major source of road funds along with gas taxes. Raising them by that proposed amount would pump another $1 billion into the transportation fund.

Another idea is to switch the state’s per-gallon tax on gas and diesel fuel to a percentage tax on the wholesale cost of those fuels. That would cost consumers about the same amount of money right now, but would increase consumer costs – and money into the transportation fund – as gas prices rise. In addition, the governor advanced the idea of allowing counties or regions to levy their own vehicle registration fees to be spent on local roads.

Of course, all of this is a hard sell in a GOP-led Legislature averse to additional taxes and fees. It’s harder still coming into an election year, when tax increases would be even more difficult. Yet everyone whose bones have been jarred by a Michigan pothole agree that something needs to be done.

What do you think? Does Michigan need more money to repair its roads. If so, where should the state find the extra cash?

After more than 13 hours of often-emotional testimony over four days, the GOP-backed bill advanced by a 9-7 vote, with two Republicans, state Reps. Joel Johnson of Clare and Mike Callton of Nashville, joining Democrats in opposition.

Rep. Ken Yonker, R-Caledonia, was on the fence and said after the vote that the state’s insurance interests and health care providers need to continue working toward a compromise on a bill that could survive a floor vote.

An amended version of the bill makes unlimited lifetime medical care, a fixture in Michigan for 33 years, an option. Drivers would be able to choose between $500,000, $1 million and $5 million in coverage for injuries.

Yonker said he still needs more information, including the number of people in the state with expenses greater than the proposed $5 million cap.

The vote came after Kevin Clinton, commissioner of the state’s Financial and Insurance Regulation Office, testified that lifetime, unlimited coverage makes the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association “unsustainable.” All insured state motorists pay $145 a year into the fund, intended to cover accident victims with expenses of more than $500,000.

“If the MCCA were an insurance company, we’d shut it down for insolvency,” Clinton said.

Clinton said capping the coverage would help keep the fund from running a deficit and should lead to lower insurance rates.

But Rep. Kate Segal, D-Battle Creek, said research shows 85 percent of the drivers would purchase the least-expensive coverage, and Rep. Roy Schmidt, D-Grand Rapids, said he is worried about what would happen to such people when when their treatment exceeds the insured amount.

“If someone has that $500,000 coverage and is in a bad accident and that money runs out, what happens to them?” he asked. “Do they go to the public for help? Or do they just die?”

Clinton said such victims would have the option of coverage from their health insurance, Medicaid or turn to the courts, “which is what happens in the other 49 states.”

He said it’s not the state’s job to protect people who don’t buy enough insurance from insolvency, saying there no mandated amounts of life and health insurance.

Clinton said the problem with the rising rates is that an estimated 20 percent of the state’s drivers are on the road without insurance. The challenge, he said, is to find a system that protects the vast majority of the motorists and is affordable enough for people to purchase.

But Rep. Marcia Hovey-Wright, D-Muskegon, said the Legislature’s job is to look out all the state’s residents, fearing that the most-severely injured crash victims would be “left in the wind.”

A coalition of business and insurance company groups applauded the vote. Pete Kuhnmuench of the Insurance Institute of Michigan said the bill would “protect and preserve” the state’s no-fault system, saying the caps will curtail medical costs.

But groups representing victims and health care providers said Michigan’s coverage is the best in the nation, and said expenses rise because medical advances are keeping crash victims alive, and living longer.

Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault president John Cornack issued the following statement:

“The actions by the house insurance committee today were completely and utterly irresponsible,” said John Cornack, president of the Coalition Protecting No-Fault Insurance in a release.

“It is irresponsible to approve legislation that would shift millions of dollars onto already over burdened taxpayers. It is irresponsible to approve legislation that kills thousands of good-paying jobs. It is irresponsible to approve legislation that circumvents voters’ constitutional rights. It is irresponsible to approve legislation based on unverifiable data controlled by a single interest group. And finally, it is irresponsible to approve legislation that destroys the best auto insurance system in the country.”

Full Article here.

The 54-page report released Monday did not suggest where the money will come from or how it will be raised. The group concluded the state’s roads and bridges will need more than $2.6 billion a year by 2023.

“I believe this report to be accurate and sellable but the governor and leadership in both chambers will actually have to agree and commit to fund roads and bridges before this report can be taken seriously,” said Schmidt.

“We are at a crossroads, where we can’t afford not to maintain our roads and bridge conditions across the state,” Schmidt said. “This is safety and an economic issue that cannot be ignored.”

The study group concluded that 95 percent of the state’s trunk line freeways are in “good or fair” while 85 percent of the state’s remaining highways and roads are “good or fair.”

“This is the inconvenient truth of the road funding matter,” said State Rep. Rick Olson, the study group’s co-chair. “These calculations would not results in a diamond or gold-plated road system. This is merely the preservation and maintenance cost.”

The report comes one month before Gov. Rick Snyder is scheduled to until his plans for funding the state’s transportation system.

Full Article here.

The Jenison woman is making daily progress, but her hospital and therapy bills are huge. “I’m like a million dollar baby right now,” she told WZZM 13′s Peter Ross during a break in physical therapy at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital.

Hanges says she’s grateful that Michigan mandates personal injury protection in its auto insurance. That gives her, and all insured citizens, unlimited lifetime medical benefits. “Until this happened I was the one complaining about how much I was paying for car insurance,” she said.

To pay for catastrophic claims like hers, it costs each premium holder about 40 cents a day, or $145 dollars a year.

The Insurance Institute of Michigan is promoting changes it says would make car insurance more affordable and flexible. The group says insurers need relief in a system that’s growing much more expensive and threatening their finances.

Pete Kuhnmuench, the group’s president, told WZZM 13 Tuesday, “The reality is most folks have other coverage that we think we’re duplicating here in Michigan with this lifetime mandate, and we think the consumer can be more efficient with their dollars by making choices on the level of coverage they’d like under their auto policy.”

State lawmakers are expected to soon debate changes that would provide personal injury protection choices. Options would go as low as $50,000 all the way up to the current full coverage.

A pair of reports commissioned by supporters of the current system say the proposed changes would result in a $30 million shift to Michigan’s Medicaid costs and the lost of about 3,500 healthcare jobs.

The following lawmakers are on the House Insurance Committee if you would like to contact them and tell them how you feel about this issue:

Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons – 517-373-0846

lisalyons@house.mi.gov

Rep. Roy Schmidt – 517-373-0822

royschmidt@house.mi.gov

Sen. Geoff Hansen – 517-373-6339

By Peter Ross

Full Article here.

Representative Schmidt,

I have to say I admire your consistent attendance at the GR Chamber’s public
policy breakfasts.  You and I probably differ on most political issues, but
I certainly respect that you stand in there as sometimes the sole member of
your party.  You don’t duck tough questions and you seem to be a sensible
bipartisan, which is something I’d like to see more of from both parties.

I don’t have any issue that I wanted to bring up to you, I just wanted to
say thanks for having the political courage to go into a room filled with a
lot of your political opponents and say “here’s what I believe and here’s
why” and do so with a little humor.

I look forward to seeing you at future public policy breakfasts!

Most respectfully,

Rob Morgenstern

News Release
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Contact: Rep. Roy Schmidt

Schmidt Condemns Recall Effort

Lansing—Representative Roy Schmidt (D-76) will work over the next few weeks and months to point out the absurdity of a recall effort against his colleague Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-75). Schmidt sees this as “retribution politics” in response to recall efforts against several Republicans, including the Governor. The entire issue of recalls “needs to be looked at” said Schmidt.

Statement:
“In many ways we have ourselves to blame. The recall fervor started when groups of activists, mostly union members with ties to the Democratic Party, went after certain Republican legislators for their votes on education, taxing pensions and taxing the poor. We have been witness to enormous shifts in the political culture in Lansing led mostly by Governor Snyder. I guess the level of anger can be expected, but recalls rarely work and the process is ugly, divisive and especially now, a total distraction from the very serious work we need to be doing in the Legislature. All we will see now is a series of lies and innuendo by petition gatherers on both sides building suspicion and hatred toward good people. This is just further eroding peoples trust in our government. We cannot continue down this path. Our country is coming apart at the seams. So, I am, as naïve as this sounds, asking all sides to call a truce and withdraw all recall efforts across the board. Second, I have instructed my staff to look into changing or amending the laws governing recalls. Recalls are a vital part of our due process system but there needs to be a burden of proof that the recall subject has truly harmed the public, acted inappropriately under normal civil and criminal law or has defied his or hers oath of office and adherence to the constitution of the State of Michigan and the United States. That same law should also require a consistent application of the law from county to county. The standards are so ambiguous now that it makes the seriousness of a proper recall just look like political circus.”

Schmidt is upset that so much attention will now be focused on sophomoric political positioning while thousands of Michigan families worry about their next pay check or losing their homes or caring for an ailing family member. The Legislature needs to “buckle down” and both sides need to “make up their minds about whether we’re going to lead for the people or be led around by party activists with axes to grind. This is why people are mad at us. I’m tired of it.”

Schmidt is regarded as one of the most centrist members of the House. He constantly reaches out to Republicans in his work to “get to yes”. Schmidt’s experience as a City Commissioner engrained in him his style of working together to get things done for people. “Problems don’t have party affiliations” he concluded.

Why recall fever in Michigan is hurting the body politic (editorial)

Grand Rapids Press Editorial Board; Published: Thursday, September 29, 2011, 7:00 AM

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 beginning this month.

Schmidt and Dillon’s Sept. coffee hours will begin this month on Sept. 12 and continue weekly as follows:

• Monday, Sept. 12, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Mr. Burger Restaurant, 2101 Lake Michigan Drive NW in Grand Rapids.
• Monday, Sept. 19, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Fat Boy Burgers, 2450 Plainfield Ave. NE, Grand Rapids.
• Monday, Sept. 26, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Omelette Shoppe, 1880 Brenton Road SE, Grand Rapids.

The lawmakers host these regular coffee hours at the same locations every Monday 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 visiting www.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.

Contact: Rep. Brandon Dillon

Phone: (517) 373-2668

Contact: Rep. Roy Schmidt

Phone: (517) 373-0822

I had the honor of presenting a Tribute to Eugene Skazinski who was just awarded the Bronze Star and the Presidential Unit Citation for his bravery in combat in World War II. A great American and outstanding West Side resident. I was joined by Rep. Amash to make this day special for Eugene and his terrific family.