Gregory Goes One on One with Constituents

Turn out was small – very small – for new 14th District State Senator Vincent Gregory's first constituent coffee event at in Farmington on Monday morning. Three constituents attended, including this reporter.

"It takes a while to get people used to coming out to these events," the Southfield Democrat said.

His goal, no matter how large or small the audience, is to not only provide information about what's happening in Lansing, but also to hear constituent concerns. For PTA Council President Chris Greig, that was bullying legislation and school funding.

Bullying legislation comes back

Gregory said bills to combat bullying in schools proposed during the last legislative session is being revived.

"Part of this is they want records kept of who's being bullied. You have to ask, does this go to the heart of ... stopping bullying," he said, adding most school districts have a policy in place. "The main purpose was to come up with a uniform policy."

Greig said the "zero tolerance" policy is very difficult for schools and families. Because of it, school officials turn cases over to the police, without undertaking an investigation of each incident. "I've talked to so many families where that's an issue," she said. 

Waiting on Governor's budget

School funding was also a big concern, particularly the question over whether post-secondary and K-12 education budgets will be combined to help balance the state budget. Gregory said  Gov. Rick Snyder has not yet delivered his budget recommendation, which is due Feb. 17. He said very little information has been floating around about the new governor's plan. However, he added, once that has been presented, the House and Senate weigh in.

Greig pointed out that Farmington Schools had to close four buildings last year to deal with an $8 million deficit. She said that a shift to including post-secondary schools would result in a $1,000 hit per student, creating a local deficit of as much as $13 million.

"I don't know how (the District) would handle it," she said, asking what local residents could do in response. 

"Any time you're saying 'don't take it', you'd better have a good reason why," Gregory said. "To say you're losing revenues isn't going to be a good enough reason. You need to say why this will effect the quality of education ... The throwback to you is going to be, 'We have a $1.8 billion deficit, so everybody's going to have to suffer'."

He suggested writing not only to local lawmakers, but also the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations and Education committees. Gregory said he has heard some discussion about school districts being able to raise taxes locally, but the concern is going back to the days before Proposal A, which was designed to level the playing field between poorer and wealthier school districts.

"Bottom line," Gregory said, "you have to take care of the kids. You've got to be able to give them a good education."

Collaboration, transportation

While he has heard no specifics, Gregory said he has heard the governor's State of the State reference to incentivizing state shared revenues would mean rewarding cities that collaborate with other entities – even school districts. As an example, cities and school districts could form alliances to buy products both need, which would garner savings for both.

However, Gregory said, "A lot of the communities rely so much on the revenue sharing ... those communities will be devastated with reductions in revenue sharing."

He said the state can't force cities to merge. "The bigger issue is how do you change people's mindsets. That's what they're talking about is trying to encourage some consolidation."

Gregory said he is introducing legislation designed to allow cities over 50,000 in population to issue state-guaranteed bonds as a preventative measure, to keep them out of insolvency.

He also discussed regional transporation and said tracks are already in place to have a train run from Detroit to the airport in Romulus. Last year, the state struggled to get $74 million together for its required federal transportation funding match, and this year will be no different, he said.

Gregory will host another coffee after the governor's budget proposal is released. A date and location will be announced later.

To contact Sen. Gregory and other state lawmakers, and for more information on pending legislation, visit legislature.mi.gov