The following column was published by the Lapeer County Press on Saturday, Dec. 21

The current legislative term has just a few days remaining. As the Michigan House is set to change from Democrat leadership to Republican, legislators spent the past few weeks in a period known as “lame duck.”

During this time, several bills go through the legislative process so they can be signed into law before the start of the new term. But this particular lame duck was light on both process and addressing priorities that people in our state care about the most.

We had an opportunity to work in a bipartisan way to help thousands of service industry workers and small businesses. They are facing the likelihood of layoffs and closures starting in February after a Supreme Court decision set unrealistic mandates on local job providers and phased out the tip credit, which provides a key source of income for workers throughout our communities.

Surveyed small business owners have been clear about what these changes would mean for them and their workers. Roughly two-thirds of local job providers would have to lay off staff, and 20% would be forced to shut down altogether. In addition, 90% said that in order to try and make ends meet, they would have to raise prices on consumers looking to support their communities by going out to shop or for a bite to eat.

There was a plan in the Legislature — one bill sponsored by a Republican legislator and one by a Democrat — that struck a careful balance going forward with this issue by fostering economic growth while protecting workers. It did not get taken up in the House by the majority party.

We also had an opportunity to deliver badly needed funding to local road agencies for repairing roads people use every day from driveway to highway. A recently introduced plan would have dedicated nearly $3 billion in additional funding to infrastructure each year, including long-neglected local roads. It used existing tax dollars and expiring corporate handouts to fund the increase without raising taxes or harming the state’s School Aid Fund.

The governor has made fixing roads a huge priority during her time in office, and this plan would have offered a local complement to her plan to bond $3.5 billion for state highways a few years ago. But this roads plan did not get taken up in the House by the majority party.

Instead, we carried on with a radical, big government agenda at the committee level and on the House floor that prioritized extreme ideas like giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, letting murderers out of prison early, allowing more inappropriate material into our school libraries, and expanding unemployment benefits to levels that will be tough for the state to fiscally sustain. Many of these last-minute, partisan agenda items were sent directly to the House floor from committee without review, public input or notice to representatives of the people. I am thankful some of these plans did not reach the governor’s desk due to the immense pushback they received once it became clear they were potentially close to becoming law.

I joined my colleagues in leaving the House floor while this was unfolding. This is not an act I take lightly. I cannot lend credence to this hijacking of the legislative process that threatens to bankrupt our state only to pay back political debts. Unfortunately, the majority party continued voting on their agenda instead of working with us to put people first. That’s not how government should operate.

As Abraham Lincoln famously said in the Gettysburg Address, “our government is of the people, by the people and for the people.” I will continue representing priorities I hear about most from people in our communities during the 2025-26 term.