By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
LANSING – It’s been a busy and rewarding year in Lansing for first-term 78th District State Representative Brad Paquette. He fulfilled a campaign promise of getting car insurance reform passed and he saw firsthand what a divided government looks like and how it works.
Paquette, R-Niles, was elected to his first term in the state legislature in November, 2018. Previously, he was a teacher at Niles New Tech, an innovative program operated by the Niles Community Schools. He currently serves on the house education, elections and ethics, insurance and government and municipal finance committees.
With term limits limiting state representatives to serving three two-year terms in the legislature, Paquette said he quickly realized that he wasn’t the only “new” face in Lansing when he got there. “With term limits, there are always new people coming in,” he said. “I’ve met some amazing people in the legislature from all different backgrounds.”
“Building relationships is an obvious key to my job,” Paquette said in a recent interview with the Berrien County
Record. “I see my biggest accomplishment as being building relationships with people here in the district and at the capital. I’ve been learning so much, whether it’s been about beach erosion, taxes, roads or education.”
“Second to building relationships has been building relationships across the aisle,” he added. “I’ve stood out as someone Democrats can come to. I lead the educators’ caucus and we strive to build trust … People get scared of any shift one way or another and I’m trying to build a coalition to overcome the gridlock.”
Paquette said that car insurance reform was one of the main pillars of his campaign and he considers getting something done this last year as perhaps his biggest accomplishment, calling it a “massive piece of legislation” he’s excited to have voted on. Those reforms take effect later this year.
“The biggest issue I heard when I was running was the high price of car insurance,” he said. “People are still skeptical but the fee structure is in place where people will have options and rates will be rolled back. The catastrophic claims association says fees will go down and we’ve empowered them to crack down on fraud.”
He’s also proud of other legislative accomplishments from 2019 such as those in the area of expungement and criminal justice reform. Now, certain non-violent offenders can expunge their records easier. At the same time, the legislature passed and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a new law that changes when juveniles are considered adults for criminal offenses.
Besides legislation, he said it’s been rewarding to find answers to address constituents’ concerns as well as give former students the chance to accompany him whether he’s in Lansing or on tours around the area. He’s held two “office hour” sessions each month around the district.
Although it didn’t look pretty to state residents, Paquette said he learned a lot from the 2019 budget process which included a standoff between the governor and the legislature. Whitmer did line item vetoes of several budget items and later negotiated with the legislature to restore some of those cuts.
“I learned a lot seeing how the governor and the legislative leaders could maneuver,” he said. “She was stuck to the 45 cent gas tax increase which nobody wanted. I learned a ton watching state leaders.”
He said that while the money the legislature had earmarked for road improvements was not restored at the end of the year, many of her other vetoes ended up being restored. Those included ones for secondary road patrols, county jails and charter schools and Kinexus funding.
He said he’s found that the toughest part of his job is figuring out how to ask the right question and then troubleshooting his way to find the real answers. He’s using that method in trying to find a solution to the recent shoreline erosion issues along Lake Michigan. He’s working with area leaders and stakeholders to find out what could work.
Paquette said the biggest surprise he’s had is finding out how sincere most people are, regardless of their politics. “My biggest surprise has been seeing how many awesome people are there with pure intentions to serve,” he said. “There’s a lot of bipartisanship happening but people only hear about the two or three percent of the things we don’t agree on.”
He said he views his work as a state representative as a type of ministry, just as he did his work as a teacher. “It’s all about people and how we interact with each other,” he said. “If we’re able to show love, we can find the best way to handle situations.”
His goals for 2020 include working with others to find a shoreline erosion solution, making government more accountable to the people, reshaping the Department of Education to empower teachers and finding a way to fund road improvements without raising taxes.
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