Join Our Team DonateNow EndorseMcBroom
PAID FOR BY THE COMMITTEE TO ELECT ED MCBROOM N470 Thaler Drive; Vulcan, MI 49892 (906) 396-6838 | mcbroom4senate@gmail.com Website by North Country Website Design.

Ed M

c

Broom’s Position

Statements

Education

While in the House I was able to advocate for, and attain, some return of choices for career paths to students and their parents. However, there is much more that needs to be done to put away the faulty notion of one perfect high school curriculum to fit all students and their futures. Well functioning local schools should be freed from many state mandates and rules that inhibit them from doing what is best for their students and communities.

School Funding

While the gap in funding for schools closed significantly during my time in the House, the job is not done. Additionally, I believe a more apparent gap exists between schools that have high transportation costs versus those that do not. A separate fund for transportation costs should be created so that the amount of money actually available for the classroom is equalized between schools.

Families

I believe the family remains the fundamental institution for raising each generation. The state must work to modernize laws to deal with the family complexities that occur so often in today's culture. Moreover, all policy should strive to strengthen families and promote their sacredness. Finally, our culture is stronger when we promote a culture of life- we must protect life, including the unborn!

Natural Resources and Land

We live in a wonderful place with tremendous beauty and opportunity. Whether it is minerals, farming, timber, water, or wildlife, we must promote policies that enhance the lives of the people who live here. That means being the best possible stewards of our resources as we use and enjoy them. I will continue the work Senator Casperson and I started to ensure the state has a real plan for managing all of the land and rights it owns and that it does not unfairly compete against private citizens and local communities attempting to buy or sell land.

Property Taxes

Property taxes are once again approaching a crisis in Michigan. While Proposal A of the 90s stabilized that era's problems, the problems are coming back as seen with huge pop-up taxes and the big box/dark store problem. I believe this is one of the biggest problems creeping up on us in Michigan and is already having a devastating affect on our communities and their abilities to provide the services we all count on: police, jails, roads, courts, public defense, schools, ambulance and fire fighting. The state effectively handcuffed our communities when it could provide the revenues to support them. Now that the revenues from the state are gone, the shackles remain for our communities. All of these problems need comprehensive, fair-minded thinking to create solutions that will stop this downward spiral. It will take less centralized, Lansing based demands and mandates and more local options and freedom. We should consider significant reforms to the property tax system and dependence in Michigan and we must close the unfair dark store tax loophole.

State Government Reform

During my years in the House it became very obvious that the era of term limits has allowed the legislature to let many of its more complicated obligations slide. Obligations such as government oversight and holding the bureaucracy accountable are difficult and often lack the immediate political payback many find appealing. I developed a true passion for reforming some of the structural problems in our government. This is why I introduced legislation reforming term limits, limiting the length of the legislative session, creating a DEQ commission, reforming the state board of education (so the UP would be represented), reforming primary election, creating a permanent legislative ethics committee and the Legislative Open Records Act, and opening the governor's office to FOIA. There is so much more to do so that our state government works better for the people and I have a deep passion to champion these issues. One of my first successes in this area was getting passage of a bill that keeps people from being found guilty of violating state laws by breaking complicated and obscure regulations.

U.P. Energy

There are many facets to energy in the U.P. that must be addressed. Most importantly, it is not acceptable that the U.P. has the highest rates in the entire continental U.S. We must have better policies that allow the U.P. situation to be fairly addressed by our own public service commission without undue influence from other states. While in the legislature I supported several measures that would have promoted more local generation, even at our own homes and businesses. We need to create additional infrastructure for electricity, natural gas, and propane needs to provide options and security for residents. At the end of 2016 the State of Michigan rewrote its energy policy. I opposed the plan because it did not finish addressing the UP energy crisis and because several crucial promises to the UP were broken.

No-Fault Insurance

Michigan has some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country. There are many factors to this problem and many things that could be done in part or whole to begin reducing the rates. I fought for six years to see the Catastrophic Claims Association changed to be more transparent and to reduce fraud. I also worked to give drivers choices in the level of coverage and to control the runaway hospital costs that are driving up the Personal Injury Protection. Unfortunately, most of the reforms to this program have remained unattainable due to politics in south east Michigan. I will not stop fighting to see real relief from this unaffordable and unsustainable tax placed on each vehicle we own.

Bureaucratic Reform

When I was sent to Lansing as a House member, I knew my job was to represent the people and concerns of this issue. I saw it as a chance to advocate our UP positions and knew there would be pressures from the opinions in other areas of the state. The bitter truth was that far more of the problems we face come from the lobbying power of the departmental and agency bureaucrats. I was often astounded by the passion people inside a department have for pet projects and views and the elitist attitude they take against their own employees and the citizens of the state. This can be summarized in the recurring fight the legislature fought to clarify that no state employee should be punished for or forbidden from talking with a state legislator. We need to fix this bad practice and do more to keep these agencies in check. The departments currently act with lobbying impunity either for themselves or other lobbyists. This must be reined in so they follow the same rules as other lobbyists.
Ed M Broom
C
For State Senate
Keep it U.P.!
PAID FOR BY THE COMMITTEE TO ELECT ED MCBROOM N470 Thaler Drive; Vulcan, MI 49892 (906) 396-6838 | mcbroom4senate@gmail.com Website by North Country Website Design.
Upper Peninsula Voting, Upper Peninsula Senator, 38 District Senator, Ed McBroom State Senator, Ed McBroom Michigan

Ed M

c

Broom’s

Position

Statements

Education

While in the House I was able to advocate for, and attain, some return of choices for career paths to students and their parents. However, there is much more that needs to be done to put away the faulty notion of one perfect high school curriculum to fit all students and their futures. Well functioning local schools should be freed from many state mandates and rules that inhibit them from doing what is best for their students and communities.

School Funding

While the gap in funding for schools closed significantly during my time in the House, the job is not done. Additionally, I believe a more apparent gap exists between schools that have high transportation costs versus those that do not. A separate fund for transportation costs should be created so that the amount of money actually available for the classroom is equalized between schools.

Families

I believe the family remains the fundamental institution for raising each generation. The state must work to modernize laws to deal with the family complexities that occur so often in today's culture. Moreover, all policy should strive to strengthen families and promote their sacredness. Finally, our culture is stronger when we promote a culture of life- we must protect life, including the unborn!

Natural Resources and

Land

We live in a wonderful place with tremendous beauty and opportunity. Whether it is minerals, farming, timber, water, or wildlife, we must promote policies that enhance the lives of the people who live here. That means being the best possible stewards of our resources as we use and enjoy them. I will continue the work Senator Casperson and I started to ensure the state has a real plan for managing all of the land and rights it owns and that it does not unfairly compete against private citizens and local communities attempting to buy or sell land.

Property Taxes

Property taxes are once again approaching a crisis in Michigan. While Proposal A of the 90s stabilized that era's problems, the problems are coming back as seen with huge pop-up taxes and the big box/dark store problem. I believe this is one of the biggest problems creeping up on us in Michigan and is already having a devastating affect on our communities and their abilities to provide the services we all count on: police, jails, roads, courts, public defense, schools, ambulance and fire fighting. The state effectively handcuffed our communities when it could provide the revenues to support them. Now that the revenues from the state are gone, the shackles remain for our communities. All of these problems need comprehensive, fair-minded thinking to create solutions that will stop this downward spiral. It will take less centralized, Lansing based demands and mandates and more local options and freedom. We should consider significant reforms to the property tax system and dependence in Michigan and we must close the unfair dark store tax loophole.

State Government Reform

During my years in the House it became very obvious that the era of term limits has allowed the legislature to let many of its more complicated obligations slide. Obligations such as government oversight and holding the bureaucracy accountable are difficult and often lack the immediate political payback many find appealing. I developed a true passion for reforming some of the structural problems in our government. This is why I introduced legislation reforming term limits, limiting the length of the legislative session, creating a DEQ commission, reforming the state board of education (so the UP would be represented), reforming primary election, creating a permanent legislative ethics committee and the Legislative Open Records Act, and opening the governor's office to FOIA. There is so much more to do so that our state government works better for the people and I have a deep passion to champion these issues. One of my first successes in this area was getting passage of a bill that keeps people from being found guilty of violating state laws by breaking complicated and obscure regulations.

U.P. Energy

There are many facets to energy in the U.P. that must be addressed. Most importantly, it is not acceptable that the U.P. has the highest rates in the entire continental U.S. We must have better policies that allow the U.P. situation to be fairly addressed by our own public service commission without undue influence from other states. While in the legislature I supported several measures that would have promoted more local generation, even at our own homes and businesses. We need to create additional infrastructure for electricity, natural gas, and propane needs to provide options and security for residents. At the end of 2016 the State of Michigan rewrote its energy policy. I opposed the plan because it did not finish addressing the UP energy crisis and because several crucial promises to the UP were broken.

No-Fault Insurance

Michigan has some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country. There are many factors to this problem and many things that could be done in part or whole to begin reducing the rates. I fought for six years to see the Catastrophic Claims Association changed to be more transparent and to reduce fraud. I also worked to give drivers choices in the level of coverage and to control the runaway hospital costs that are driving up the Personal Injury Protection. Unfortunately, most of the reforms to this program have remained unattainable due to politics in south east Michigan. I will not stop fighting to see real relief from this unaffordable and unsustainable tax placed on each vehicle we own.

Bureaucratic Reform

When I was sent to Lansing as a House member, I knew my job was to represent the people and concerns of this issue. I saw it as a chance to advocate our UP positions and knew there would be pressures from the opinions in other areas of the state. The bitter truth was that far more of the problems we face come from the lobbying power of the departmental and agency bureaucrats. I was often astounded by the passion people inside a department have for pet projects and views and the elitist attitude they take against their own employees and the citizens of the state. This can be summarized in the recurring fight the legislature fought to clarify that no state employee should be punished for or forbidden from talking with a state legislator. We need to fix this bad practice and do more to keep these agencies in check. The departments currently act with lobbying impunity either for themselves or other lobbyists. This must be reined in so they follow the same rules as other lobbyists.
Ed M Broom
C
For State Senate
Keep it U.P.!
Ed McBroom Conservative Republican Michigan State Senate