Paul
Gateway to
a Better Life!
(R)
For State Representative
(Michigan's 82nd District)
For State Representative (Michigan's 82nd District)
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Web ChangesThis is where we'll announce the most recent additions to our web site. If you've visited us before and want to know what's changed, take a look here first. NEXT FORUM: July 10 Thursday 6:30 Imlay City American Legion Post 136 Debate Imlay City Middle School
Check Family Page (under "Our Candidate") for recent family picture additions Compare the Candidates by checking their web pages and where they stand on the issues. Our Links page will take you to their sites. You'll note that a few are adopting our ideas on the issues
Press ReleasesThese are the older press releases we've issued over the last year and relevant articles. You may want to search for topics by keyword.
Letters -- 06/26/08 A fine crop of candidates You see, I was hired to video-tape them in several forums throughout the county and will not be able to vote for them because I no longer live in Lapeer County. I never thought I would see individuals care about our government again. I remember when people were proud of their government, not just singing a song or wearing red, white and blue on the 4th of July, but truly feeling good to stand and honor the flag when it passed in a parade with their hand over their heart, saying the “Pledge of Allegiance” and never buying a foreign car, it was just unheard of. But to see 10 fine gentlemen, 10 very polite gentlemen; then gentlemen who were asked to respond “without notice and quickly” like they were on a game show. Question after question, they responded gracefully, trying to share their ideas and plans and all within their 30 seconds, amazing. And they have some amazing ideas and plans! Ten gentlemen who smile and are polite, who have manners! Manners are such a good quality, a forgotten quality no more. I am proud to have witnessed the sincere performance, demanded upon them when they have simply offered to step up and look at the good in Michigan and give a vocal fight in her honor! They are already donating their time from their jobs, family and friends, and, of course, their own money just to campaign for the residents of Lapeer County. But yet, only one man will succeed. One of these men will be given the duty to fulfill some of those promises and hopefully the duty is “capable” of success with the political web that has been woven these past few years. Hopefully the chosen individual will have some help... Please show these 10 gentlemen that we care about Lapeer County. Please vote!
The best and easiest way to repay the commitment these candidates have shown us
is to show up and vote! Losing the primary is one thing, but losing to a small
turnout would be a disgrace of all people in Lapeer County. What a “shot in the arm” Michigan would be getting from “an arrow of
ideas from Lapeer County.”
Flag Day this Saturday
By Joyce Bonesteel Sprague won’t have anyone looking over his shoulder this Saturday, June 14, in a Flag Day celebration at the Historic Courthouse. His role is to welcome visitors and lead the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s a day for Americans to salute Old Glory, talk to 82nd State Representative candidates and bow their heads in prayer. Chances are the candidates will pray for votes. Shopping the farmers’ market and downtown stores is another idea promoted
by the Lapeer Area Chamber of Commerce for this event. The 1846 courthouse doors
will open for tours at 9 a.m. Visitors are asked to sign the registry and view a
miniature flag display presented by Deerfield Church of Christ. Memorabilia
sales will benefit the Lapeer County Historical Society. Bring your faded, tattered flags to the American Legion Post 16 booth for proper disposal. A five-minute presentation by the Legion’s Color Guard is set for 9:20 a.m. Deborah Daley’s first-grade class from Mayfield Elementary School will perform “I’m Proud to be an American.” At 9:30 a.m. the mayor will welcome everyone and lead in the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by an invocation by Pastor Rick Menzing of Faith Christian Family Church. Patriotism is second nature to Brian Ervin of Heritage Research Institute, who will talk about the history of Flag Day. The Lapeer County Concert Choir will sing “The Star Spangled Banner,” and Gary Gillim of Maple Grove Christian Church will give a benediction. The mayor plans to open a town hall meeting at 10:30 by introducing Adrienne Broaddus of WNEM-TV5, a moderator for the political hopefuls. By that time, names will be drawn to determine who goes first. Candidates each have one minute to introduce themselves, tell why they’re running, mention key issues and what their goals are, if elected. So they’ll have to talk fast. A question-and-answer session follows, coordinated by the moderator. After closing comments by the candidates, the meeting will end with the choir’s half-hour concert of patriotic songs.
Detroit News
Sunday, May 25, 2008
EditorialLack of will to change holds back MichiganFor months, the Center for Michigan, a centrist Ann Arbor think tank, has been holding community conversations to determine the policy directions residents want for this state. Many of them are simple common sense. But so far, our leaders have lacked the political will to implement common-sense reforms. That has to change if this state is to recover and prosper in the face of the wrenching shift in its economic foundation. While our manufacturing base has to be nurtured, it is clear we need to move toward a knowledge-based economy with skilled and educated workers able to adapt to new technologies and opportunities. The center, in its community conversations, crafted three guiding principles that should govern the state's response to its economic crisis: • Develop a talented and globally competitive work force. • Create and sustain a vibrant economy and a great quality of life. • Institute effective, efficient and accountable government. The center grouped separate strategies under these general principles. Not all will agree with all of them and many of them have already been talked about, some for years. For example, under the heading of making the work force competitive, the state has finally adopted a rigorous core curriculum for high schools, but the reform is under constant assault. The center proposes rewarding good teachers, but teacher unions have strongly resisted the idea of merit pay. The center contends that both college and lifelong learning should be affordable so students and workers can upgrade their skills. But it also notes that the state's investment in university funding has fallen. Under the heading of developing the economy, the center proposes assuring consistency in permit processing across communities. The state and local governments have been promising for years to develop "one-stop" permitting, and it is still a topic of contention with the business community. The center seeks a competitive and understandable business tax structure, but notes the new Michigan Business Tax has left some firms angry and confused. It also found that regulatory barriers are still an issue in growing new business in the state. Some in Lansing insist on piling on more regulations, such as recent moves to require that state contractors hire more Michigan residents or face penalties, and to create a commission to meddle in private sector pay decisions. In seeking to develop more efficient and accountable government, the center notes, as have many others, that corrections spending outpaces higher education spending and is one of the top six cost centers in state government. Yet lawmakers have dragged their feet in adjusting sentencing rules. Prison sentences in Michigan, a new report by the Citizens Research Council notes, tend to be significantly longer than in surrounding states. While Michigan has a lower ratio of public employees to residents than many other states, their pay and benefits are at the very top of the scale. Residents queried by the center contend they want more resource sharing among school districts and local governments -- and there has been some progress in this area. Yet the center reports that local government in Michigan remains more fragmented -- and thus inefficient -- than most other areas in the nation. The bottom line is that Michigan knows what to do to begin solving its many problems. The challenge now is to muster the will. [Sound Familiar? Many of these are the same issues that I have been pushing for!]
Detroit News
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Nolan FinleyMichigan needs competent generals
Last year, at least we had Kwame Kilpatrick. We sailed off to the 2007 Mackinac policy conference with our knickers in a knot over Lansing's bungling of the escalating state budget crisis. But Kilpatrick was a bright spot. The Detroit mayor was fixing his city with bold reforms and tough choices, setting an example Lansing refused to follow. His infectious "damn the torpedoes" spirit gave us something to feel good about. Now that's gone. As we return to Mackinac Island for the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual palaver, we must face that at every level of government, our political leadership is no match for the frightful forces confronting Michigan. We've got lousy generals. In Lansing, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has had nearly six years to turn vision into progress, and still can't find her mojo. Term limits have devastated the Legislature. Lawmakers don't get that their partisan skirmishes are enabling an economic enemy that cares little about politics. Detroit is so short on talent that we're almost willing to accept corruption to get competence. Desperate, we turn to business leaders, to the Roger Penskes and Dave Bings, to stand between us and destruction. But business leaders have businesses to run; they can't make policy. Detroit Renaissance tried. It drafted a blueprint of what Michigan must do to survive and sent it off to Lansing, where it's getting lip service but little action. "Where's the rallying cry?" asks a frustrated David Brandon, the Dominos Pizza chief who chairs Renaissance. "There's a bigger issue here than any one individual or political party. But it feels like you're screaming into the wind." Worse, Michigan isn't screaming at all. We aren't nearly angry enough about the deteriorating conditions in our state or the bleak outlook for our future. We've accepted the leadership void as the natural order of things and bought into the excuse that Michigan's challenges can't be met, no matter who's in charge. But we need only to look to our neighbor, Indiana, for a different reality. Indiana is also a low-tech state dependent on manufacturing, with a big stake in the domestic auto industry. Gov. Mitch Daniels has refused to surrender. He's successfully fought to keep existing plants and to attract new ones. He's had the courage to shake things up, outsourcing much of the bureaucracy and putting public employees on merit pay. While Granholm set a goal of doubling college graduation rates in Michigan and then failed to fund it, Indiana made education a budget priority, helping to move the Hoosier state to 10th in college-going rates from 47th. Though part of the Rust Belt, Indiana's image is of a place wide open for business. But the real difference between Indiana and Michigan is that Daniels fights to change his state, while our leaders fight to maintain the status quo. The conversation on Mackinac this week must be about cultivating strong leaders. Few battles have ever been won without forceful commanders. More than anything, Michigan needs better generals.
Imlay Chamber hosts second candidate forum
IMLAY CITY — Republican state representative candidates Paul St. Louis, Gary Howell, Randy St. Laurent, Todd Courser and Benjamin Stahl met at the Imlay City Days Inn on Tuesday, May 20 for part two of the Imlay City Chamber of Commerce’s candidate forums. Paul St. Louis said he advocated lowering taxes to provide for more discretionary spending money for residents. The extra funds, he said, would help businesses, which would in turn help residents. He also advocated prison and sentencing reforms. Gary Howell, 60-year-old U.S. Army veteran went to Michigan State University and studied law at the University of Michigan. He has been the city attorney for Imlay City for 18 years among other municipalities. He operates a farm in North Branch Township with his son, John, and is president of the Intermediate School District board and former president of the North Branch school board. Howell has also had experience working in the House of Representatives. “I’m the person who has the background,” he said. He believes that the Department of Environmental Quality is holding up new businesses because of “bureaucratic inefficiency,” and is a strong advocate of a part-time legislature and removal of the lifetime health benefits and pension plan for legislators. If elected, he would retire from his law practice to concentrate fully on the job of state representative, Howell said. Randy St. Laurent said he is pro-life, pro-second amendment and for small government. He said he would represent the people, regardless of his own beliefs. “I am a Republican, but not everyone in Lapeer County is a Republican, not everyone is a Democrat, not everyone is a Christian, not everyone votes,” he said. “But thanks to the best efforts of the federal, state and local governments, everyone is a taxpayer. I will do my best to fairly represent the taxpayers of Lapeer County.” St. Laurent advocates a change in the Michigan tax system and believes that the proposed Fair Tax or “something very similar” is the answer. He said that the Michigan movie industry refundable tax credits are an example of “reckless government spending.” Todd Courser, a Lapeer East graduate. He earned his accounting degree at the University of Michigan-Flint before going to law school to study tax law. He gave an in-depth presentation explaining why businesses were finding it more fiscally responsible to move their bases of operations to southern states. Ben Stahl also spoke. The 30-year-old Lapeer Industries worker and former realtor and small business owner said that the gas taxes currently collected are “insane.” He said that the 6 cents in sales tax of every $1 paid for gasoline doesn’t even go toward road maintenance. “This state was built on manufacturing,” Stahl said. He said he wants to
make manufacturing a priority in the state. Developers balk, I-69/M-24 area project is stalled
By Mike Arnholt City commissioners refused to take action following a public hearing to set the special assessment roll for the $14 million project after two of the 11 property owners would not sign off on the city’s plan to finance the project. As the city abandoned the project to bring city services to the entire 600-plus acre area, it quickly began the process of setting public hearings to bring services to the north side of the freeway to accommodate an already-approved site for a Lowe’s home improvement store and other retail development at the southeast corner of M-24 and Turrill Road. The setting of those initial hearings will be on the commission’s April 21 agenda. That scaled-back plan to initially serve only the north side of the freeway, as the first in a multi-phase approach, was first proposed in August of last year and was what prompted property owners to the south of the freeway to object and insist that a larger plan to serve all areas be drafted. That led to eight months of negotiations and efforts on the part of the city and property owners that died Monday night. City officials insisted all along that any city-backed financing plan needed unanimous agreement from all property owners in the development area before it would proceed to seek bonds for the project, which would put the city’s full backing behind the bonds. It also offered to foot about $2 million of the total $14 million of the project’s cost. Property owners on the north side of the freeway did not object to the special assessments for the larger project, which would have brought water and sewer to both north and south sides of the intersection. No firm commitments and no site plans have been submitted for any of the property south of the freeway. The property at the intersection is all part of the more than 800 acres that were annexed by the city from Lapeer Twp. in 2006. Property owners in the annexed area had backed the annexation efforts so that it would allow them to bring city services that are needed before the land can be commercially developed. The city pegs development potential of the area at a total $1 billion investment that could create up to 2,000 jobs. [We've got to push to make this happen!] Full-time state Legislature needed
FLINT JOURNAL LETTER TO THE EDITOR
LAPEER CITY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Monday, April 07, 2008
Forty-six states have part-time legislatures, Michigan doesn't. Why do we need a full-time Legislature today, when what we have isn't working and everyone else gets by with a part-time legislature? This is why: One, Michigan leads the nation in unemployment. Two, Michigan was third in the nation in foreclosures. Three, Michigan alone is seeing a mass exodus as people leave to find work. Four, Michigan is in need of massive reform to make it competitive, just like the Big 3 have been going through. To turn Michigan around, we need people working full-time to solve these problems. When we become competitive and have the necessary reforms in place would be the time to look at part-time Legislature. The system can work - you just need the right people. We need representatives who will discuss the challenges that Michigan faces and together make the necessary changes. The high pay can be reformed. The people need to be loud and clear that we cannot afford to provide life-time benefits for six years of work. We cannot afford to hand out thousands of dollars to every legislator without accountability. These reforms can be made when we select representatives that will put Michigan ahead of themselves. Paul St. Louis Lapeer
Publication: LA View, The
(MI) A lot of the time, recognizing that there’s a problem and being able to craft a solution tend to go hand in hand. The light won’t go on when you flip the switch, so you change the light
bulb. Problem solved. Of course, all problems can’t be solved that simply. A weakening economy, a clumsy tax structure, a crippling reliance on foreign imports, a war that saps the resolve of even the most dedicated are all a bit less simplistic. A luncheon speaker this week outlined a number of problems he sees in what has been going on in Lansing with our legislators. I was impressed by his understanding of the depth of the problems facing the state and the difficulty those problems present in crafting a solution. But that was it. He only told me that the light was out and the tire was flat — nothing more. Most of us can figure out what the problem is. We really don’t need help in that department. What we need from our elected leaders are solutions — or at least a choice of actions that could effect a change. Our political leaders — and many of those who want to be — are a lot like
that luncheon speaker. But it’s rare to hear talk about solutions. I can’t really expect that the discourse will offer any clear course of action at the national level. It’s very difficult to sort the spin from the substance there. But I think we as voters can hold our state, county and local township candidates to a higher standard. In this election season, don’t let a candidate tell you what’s wrong without clearly spelling out how to fix it. Don’t let somebody put the rap on an opponent’s views or votes without offering an honest alternative. If we keep electing the folks who only know how to tell us what the problems are, we’ll end up sitting around in the dark hopelessly waiting for someone to fix all those flat tires.
paid for by: Paul St. Louis for State Representative 100 Edgewood Lane Lapeer, MI 48446 |
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Small Business Association of
Michigan has given me their ""SBAM Stamp of Approval"!
