Slavens: Work Together to Support Small Business

By Rep. Dian Slavens

We're a little more than a month into the new Legislature, and with 61 new members in the Michigan House of Representatives, I've spent a lot of time building bipartisan relationships with my new colleagues. Much of that time, however, has been focused on telling them about the things that matter to you and all of our families in Canton, Belleville and Van Buren Township, so they understand the priorities I'm fighting for.

While most of my colleagues and I agree that we must focus on turning Michigan's economy around, we often have different opinions on how to get there. That's a good thing, though – no one person, one party or one idea will put our state back on track. We must all work together across party lines to reach our goal, and I will continue fighting to make sure that as we move Michigan forward, we don't leave our families behind.

Putting our residents back to work and supporting businesses. The Legislature's top priority must be jobs. My House colleagues and I have long fought to help small businesses create jobs and to stand up for Michigan's working families. I'm hopeful that the early bipartisan spirit in Lansing will translate to bipartisan action.

To create jobs, our focus must be on helping businesses of all sizes set up shop and grow here in Michigan. Last session, I championed a law that expanded Michigan's first-in-the-nation advanced battery incentives and attracted world-class companies that plan to invest more than $4.4 billion in Michigan and create nearly 8,000 new jobs. These are the forward-thinking ideas we need to make Michigan a more business-friendly state.

Small businesses are the job providers that drive our economy, which is why I will continue working on solutions that will help small businesses get past the obstacles and that block their success. In these tough economic times when many businesses cannot access the capital they need to stay in business, we must help make sure they can secure funding to expand and create jobs.

We must also fix overly burdensome regulations that block businesses' growth so that they are more reasonable, and establish resources to help start-up businesses and new entrepreneurs take their business plan from the drawing board to the storeroom floor. These are just a few of the ways we must work to make Michigan the best place for small businesses to locate so that they can create jobs for our workers.

Putting Michigan workers first. I have also reintroduced the Hire Michigan First plan, which will make sure that when taxpayer dollars help create jobs in Michigan, those jobs go to Michigan workers. This plan is about standing up for our working families and putting them first, which is why I was disappointed that it didn't become law last session. Supporting our workers is not a partisan issue. I am optimistic that with new colleagues in both the House and the Senate and with a new administration that we can get the Hire Michigan First plan passed for our working families.

Fixing our state government. I will also keep pushing to reform Lansing so that we get a state government that uses our taxpayer dollars wisely on the things we care about, because that's what our residents deserve. That includes continuing my fight to end taxpayer-funded lifetime health care benefits for lawmakers. Now, more than ever, we must make sure we end this out-of-touch perk so that those scarce resources can be used to support our middle-class families.

Balancing the state budget. Of course, as Michigan faces another nearly $2 billion budget shortfall, much of my attention this year will be focused on balancing the state budget. There's no way around the fact that we will have to make cuts to reduce spending. However, we must also focus on streamlining and increasing efficiency in state government to reduce wasteful spending so that our precious taxpayer dollars can be used to support our working families.

Supporting our families. While these cuts must make sure that everyone shares in the sacrifice – including lawmakers and elected officials – I will work to protect important priorities for our working families, who have been sacrificing for years. I will keep working to make sure that our local schools get their fair share of funding so that they can give our kids a world-class education. We must also invest in our communities to strengthen our neighborhoods and keep our police and firefighters on the street so that they can keep our families safe. And I will keep fighting to protect services that help our families get back on their feet during these tough times and help keep our seniors and children safe and healthy.

These are my priorities because they are the things that you and your family care about. If there is anything that you think I should be working on, I want to hear about it. As always, if you have any concerns or ideas, please feel free to call me toll-free at 888-347-8021 or contact me by e-mail at DianSlavens@house.mi.gov. My door is always open.