REPRESENTATIVE PAQUETTE FEATURE 2021 – 2022

By DEBRA HAIGHT

State leaders continued to deal with pandemic related issues in 2021 and expect to do so again in 2022. In addition, other issues were addressed ranging from short term rentals to support for law enforcement.

State Rep. Brad Paquette has had a front row seat to everything going in Lansing. He is at the mid-point of his second term in office representing the 78^th state house district and his first year in the state house leadership.

Paquette, R-Niles, was named to a leadership post in late 2020 after being elected to his second term in the legislature. He is the associate speaker pro-tem in the state house and will continue in that role for 2022.

“Being in leadership means I get to be at the leadership table,” Paquette said in a phone interview in December. “Being on the rostrum gives you a different angle to look at how the legislature works and see how bills are passed.”

Paquette said he does plan on running for a third and final term in the state house and hopefully remain in a leadership role. Term limits preclude people from serving more than three two-year terms in the state house.

“There’s a lot of work still to do,” he said. “Having to operate remotely for parts of the last two years took a bite out of our productivity.”

Even so, he reported in his legislative “year in review” that he cast 594 votes and had three bills signed into law. In addition, his office responded to 5,200 emails, awarded 76 tributes, handled 1,500 pieces of personal correspondence and helped people resolve more than 700 unemployment cases.

2021 highlights he mentioned included making decisions on spending federal pandemic funding. “A lot revolved around how to spend and allocate the federal funds the state received,” he said. “We spent money on education to close the per pupil funding which was my bill.”

He’s also proud of the bills passed to support local public safety personnel. Those bills included innovative recruitment tools to address officer shortages like a “Move to Michigan” initiative to attract officers now working in other states as well as mental health assistance to support first responders stretched to the breaking point by the pandemic.

He said the appropriations subcommittee he chairs is also addressing school safety issues in light of the recent school shooting in Oxford, Mich. “Making schools feel safe and having more school resource officers will be front and center,” he said. “Schools need to feel safe but not to the extend they feel like a prison. We don’t want to hurt school culture.”

Paquette said gridlock was a big thing in Lansing again in 2021 and will likely be so in 2022 as it is an election year. “The gridlock stymied a lot of what we tried to do,” he said. “She (Gov. Whitmer) is changing how she’s approaching mandates as they’ve been pretty unpopular and she looks at the polling. I’m grateful for that.”

He noted that a grassroots petition initiative against mandates and Whitmer’s use of emergency powers was instrumental in allowing the legislature to overturn 1945 emergency powers law she used. That initiative gathered 500,000 signatures on “Unlock Michigan” petitions.

“Americans love freedom and the mandates and lockdowns brought people out of the woodwork,” he said. “It’s important to find a balance.”

Part of that balance includes making sure that people don’t take advantage of a situation such as the pandemic to curtail the freedoms of others. He thinks the overreach done by the governor and other officials have resulted in a backlash where some people might not take pandemic as seriously as they should.

He himself got in the middle of at least one COVID related debate in 2021 as he called out Berrien RESA officials for instituting a sick leave policy that he felt was discriminatory. The policy granted additional paid sick days to vaccinated employees-a policy RESA officials said the vast majority of employees had agreed to.

“I heard from people who were pretty upset,” Paquette said. “To me, it was a matter of discriminating against people’s personal health decisions. I have a bill to protect people who are being fired or pushed out if they don’t get vaccinated and ban such sick leave policies.”

He said he’s glad the governor has backed down on pushing for more mandates, lockdowns and quarantines. “She’s backed off,” he said. “It’s now at the county and local levels with boards and school boards.”

Another issue that Paquette and fellow legislators spent a considerable amount of time on in 2021 is election integrity. He doesn’t think there is as much momentum to continue pushing the issue in 2022. He doubts that an effort similar to the “Unlock Michigan” initiative to gather signatures calling for a forensic audit will be as successful.

He did note that the legislature did try to enact some election integrity reforms and he sees it as a topic that will be remain on the radar. “A lot of new people are running on election integrity and I think they will bring that to the table in the next term,” he said.

One issue that ended up being controversial in 2021 was legislation that would have taken away a lot of local control over short term rentals. Paquette initially co-sponsored the original bill but later opposed it after hearing from local and county officials.

“I originally supported the bill because it wouldn’t allow local boards to ban short term rentals through zoning but I met with township officials who were very opposed to the bill,” he said. “It’s a community issue, I still don’t think they should be banned through zoning but we have to have balance and address those who are taking advantage of the system.”

While the legislation taking away some local controls on short term rentals ended up passing the house in the fall, it failed to gain traction in the senate.

Other 2021 accomplishments included lengthening county commissioners’ terms from two to four years. County officials across the state have been pushing that change for several years and it will first effect county commission races in 2024.

Issues he thinks will be in the forefront in 2022 include understanding the impact of inflation, spending wisely and finding partnerships to expand rural broadband service. “We need to be able to spend the money we’re getting wisely and not just toss it out the door,” he said.

He said major focuses for him will continue to be keeping government out of people’s lives, expanding broadband and promoting efforts in the area of education. He said he plans to keep his head down and work on issues and hopes that gridlock won’t get in the way of progress.

Paquette remains proud of an accomplishment from his first term in office: car insurance reform. The legislature’s no-fault auto insurance reforms have reduced car insurance costs for many Michiganders and will also give drivers a $400 per vehicle refund in 2022.

Two issues from 2020 and 2021 appear to be dying down: making Secretary of State offices more accessible to the public and investigating Unemployment Insurance Agency fraud. He said he received a lot of calls especially about the lack of access to the Secretary of State offices during the pandemic.

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