secondsProduction funding for Media Meet is provided by the Ray and Peg Hirvonen Foundation.

secondsThe most interesting contest to watch this election season is the race for Michigan's 38th Senate [music] seat.

The candidate who prevails will represent secondsnearly all of the upper peninsula [music] in Lansing.

I'm Mike Settles inviting you to stay tuned to WNMU for a special 90minute edition of Media Meet secondsfeaturing all three candidates competing in the 38th district.

Kelli van Ginhoven, Dave Prestin, and Sara Cambensy.

[music] secondsThe Michigan 38th Senate District Candidate Forum is next on WNU.

secondsFrom the studios [music] of WNMU TV on the campus of Northern Michigan University, welcome to the Michigan 38th minuteSenate District Candidate Forum presented by WNMU Public Media, WLUCTV6, and Media Brew Communications.

minute, 12 secondsHello everyone.

I am Mike Settles, producer and host of WNMU's Media Meet.

minute, 17 secondsIt's my pleasure to be serving as today's forum moderator.

Here to question our 38th Senate District candidates are three of the region's top minute, 25 secondsjournalists.

They include Nicole Walton, news director at WNMUFM Public Radio90, Brady Meyer, anchor and producer at WLU minute, 35 secondsTV6, and Walt Lindela, network news director for Media Brew Communications.

Thank you panel for joining us today.

minute, 43 secondsOur studio audience includes invited guests of the candidates, representatives from the League of Women Voters of Marquette minute, 51 secondsCounty, and students and faculty from NMU's communications studies, multimedia journalism, and multimedia production programs.

Welcome, folks.

minutes, 4 seconds[applause] minutes, 5 secondsAll right, here are the guidelines for today's forum.

The three candidates will provide one minute opening statements.

minutes, 11 secondsWe will then have our journalists question the candidates on a variety of topics important to Upper Michigan voters.

Each candidate will have one minutes, 19 secondsminute to respond to a question and then 30 seconds for a rebuttal or to add on to their initial response.

At the end of the Q&A, the candidates will have an minutes, 27 secondsopportunity to present closing statements to make that final appeal to you at home as to why they deserve your vote.

minutes, 36 secondsSpanning nearly 13,000 square miles, the 38th district is geographically the largest Senate district in Michigan.

It minutes, 43 secondscovers all of the UP with the exception of the far eastern end of our peninsula.

minutes, 48 secondsFor nearly eight years now, the district has been represented by Republican Ed McBroom of Wita Township.

One can only imagine the miles that Senator McBroom minutes, 58 secondshas racked up commuting back and forth to Lansing.

Those trips will soon end as he is term limited.

So, the 38th Senate minutes, 6 secondsseat will be an open one to be filled by one of our three candidates.

With this form airing and streaming on WNU Public minutes, 13 secondsMedia, WLUCTV6, and Media Brew Communications, the candidates will address more voters now minutes, 20 secondsthan at any other event this year.

Now, I would like to introduce the three candidates vying to become your next minutes, 27 secondssenator representing Michigan's 38th district in Lansing.

Democrat Kelli van Ginhoven, Republican Dave Prestin, minutes, 35 secondsand Independent Sara Cambensy.

Welcome candidates.

minutes, 39 secondsThank you.

[applause] That will be the last applause you will you will hear for the bulk of this program.

We have asked our studio minutes, 47 secondsaudience not to applaud or otherwise react to the candidates's comments so that it does not detract from uh the time allotted for their responses.

Now, minutes, 56 secondslet's begin the forum with opening statements.

Kelli van Ginhoven, we begin with you.

You have one minute.

minutes, 2 secondsThank you for having me.

Uh, hello everyone.

My name is Kelli van Ginhoven.

minutes, 6 secondsI'm a current Delta County Commissioner, a former small business entrepreneur, and I am the Democratic nominee for this minutes, 14 secondsstate senate seat.

I'm running because our UP communities are being left behind downstate in Lansing.

I'm not going to minutes, 21 secondslet that happen any longer.

We need solid, smart leadership that is not beholden to special interests and their minutes, 28 secondsbig donors.

I'm running a people over profits policy centered campaign which focuses on access to rural health care, minutes, 37 secondsmental health care overhaul, investing in clean energy in our public schools, and protecting the sovereignty of our minutes, 46 secondsnative tribes and the Great Lakes.

I look forward to answering your questions today.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you, Kelly.

Uh Dave Prestin, the floor is yours.

minutes, 55 secondsThank you.

I'm Dave Prestin, state representative for the 108th district, and I'm running for the 38th state senate seat because we need strong UP minutes, 3 secondsfirst representation in Lansing.

For years, I've watched our region face the same barriers, high energy prices, health care shortages, and an economy minutes, 12 secondsthat keeps losing opportunity.

These problems will only get worse.

[snorts] The right representation in the Senate is critical.

I am the only candidate minutes, 21 secondswith the experience and the record to tackle our biggest problems.

I've owned and operated small businesses for most of my adult life.

I'm a volunteer minutes, 28 secondsfirefighter, licensed paramedic, and since being elected to the House four years ago, I've consistently been a UP first representative.

That means while minutes, 37 secondsI'm a Republican, my votes always serve the upper peninsula.

I refuse to allow downstate interests to tell me what's minutes, 44 secondsbest for our UP.

I answer to you, the people.

In this election, the people have a choice.

If you want a candidate minutes, 51 secondsthat will work non-stop to bring new opportunities like Hopperwood, to lower basic costs like housing and energy, and to protect the essential services that minutes, 59 secondswe all depend on, I humbly ask for your vote on November 3rd.

minutes, 3 secondsThank you, Dave.

Sara Cambensy, one minute for an opening statement.

minutes, 7 secondsThank you.

born and raised right here in the UP.

I come from a father who's an engineer who gave me my analytical minutes, 14 secondsskills and um my compassion as well as a mom who was a union nurse um who gave me minutes, 22 secondsthe heart to actually want to work with people and do that public service.

I spent 10 years in local elected and appointed positions and three terms as a state legislator in the 109th district.

minutes, 33 secondsI have a record of working for the people and putting the people over any special interest groups.

And I'm running minutes, 40 secondsas an independent because the two-party system has created a political gridlock in Lansing.

Meaning that that money and minutes, 47 secondsthose issues that we face aren't getting solved at the local level.

No one can afford to live right now and affordability is a number one issue we minutes, 55 secondsneed to tackle.

Whether it's health care, water bills, electricity rates, or food on the table, it's time to put the minutes, 3 secondspeople at the top of the pyramid and not our federal government and not our state government.

We need to make sure that the agenda works around what the people minutes, 12 secondswant, not what politicians want.

people pay enough in taxes and we need to prioritize their e their needs and wants minutes, 21 secondsand remember that they're the ones paying for everything that we as politicians make decisions on.

minutes, 27 secondsThank you Sarah.

It is now time uh for questioning from our journalists, but I'm going to take the uh privilege here of asking your first question and it minutes, 36 secondspertains to your qualifications to be a state senator.

Kelly, we'll begin with you on this.

Um, I'd like all of you candidates to tell us more about your minutes, 44 secondspersonal and professional backgrounds, uh, your experience in elected office and why you feel you are the best candidate to rep represent the upper peninsula in the state senate.

minutes, 55 secondsThank you.

I I am a current Delta County Commissioner.

I was able to flip a red district into blue through a recall minutes, 3 secondsrace.

I was able to uh win my general election race in a district that went minutes, 10 seconds55% for Trump.

They went 57% for me as the Democrat.

So, I know that I do have the ability to work across party lines.

minutes, 18 secondsI'm the only Democrat on our Delta County Commission, so I do know what it's like to work with the other side of the aisle.

I do it very well.

Uh I'm a minutes, 27 secondsformer small business owner.

I built, owned, and operated a small business for nearly a decade on Letington Street.

I'm minutes, 34 secondsa wife.

I'm a mom.

Uh I have worked every normal job that a person in the Upper Peninsula works.

From a Walmart minutes, 42 secondscashier to a bank teller to a church secretary to a preschool teacher.

It's my job to represent Upper Michigan.

It's minutes, 51 secondsmy job to represent the normal people and that's what I plan to do in Lansing.

minutes, 55 secondsThank you.

Uh Dave Prestin, tell us more about again your background and and qualifications to be a state senator.

minutes, 2 secondsUh I, you know, my entire life has really been in the private sector.

I've I really specialized in in turning around troubled properties, most of them minutes, 10 secondseither in bankruptcy or in the throws of a bankruptcy.

Uh the bulk of my career was spent in food and beverage.

And when we sold Cedar River Plaza, a truck stop, minutes, 18 secondsyou know, halfway between Economy about nine years ago, you know, I I pivoted.

minutes, 23 secondsAt that time I was a a you know volunteer firefighter, EMS responder for our local agency and uh I just I went minutes, 31 secondsback to school became a paramedic.

At the same time I was a county commissioner and serving on the Elder Delta board of directors.

Um and that cooperative I actually ran that minutes, 39 secondscooperative for about two years.

So my my experience is across energy, healthc care, um small business and the minutes, 47 secondschallenges that small business faces.

Um I'm a father, I'm a husband.

Uh my daughter's currently going to school at Michigan Tech.

Uh we're heavily invested minutes, 56 secondsand have heavily invested in the UP and I've been watching baptized in precious blood and Stevenson.

I've been watching minutes, 2 secondsthe UP my entire life and uh that's why I that's why I ran for office to fight for the UP for a better future.

minutes, 11 secondsThank you.

Uh Sara Cambensy, again, background qualifications and and why uh those pertain to being a state senator.

minutes, 18 secondsSo, I went to school to be a teacher and when I got out, uh, you couldn't find a teaching job.

There were 75 applicants for every teaching job in the UP and minutes, 27 secondsmost of us had to either leave, go elsewhere, or find another career.

So, eventually getting into the school minutes, 34 secondssystem, I became the adult and community education director where I dealt with our summer school GED programs and really making sure that no one fell minutes, 42 secondsthrough the cracks.

Um while I was doing that I spent six uh 10 years in local government.

So I was first appointed to minutes, 50 secondsthe planning commission.

Uh then I worked uh and became an elected official on the city charter commission as well minutes, 58 secondsas um three terms on the Marquette city commission.

And it's there that I really um stood up for the people and the minutes, 5 secondstaxpayers specifically when the money they were paying in was funneled off to special interests.

And I think that's minutes, 13 secondsthe thing that people recognize about me most is that my passion comes from standing up um not going along with group think and actually questioning why minutes, 21 secondswe're doing things and getting the city and our finances back on track.

Um the other thing I'm a type 1 diabetic and so minutes, 28 secondshealthc care is very important to me.

Um and I've spent a lot of time working on how we can make that lower lower cost for people.

minutes, 35 secondsThank you.

Uh again here's your chance additional 30 seconds.

If there's something you neglected to mention, please add on to it now.

Kelly, yes, thank you.

Sorry, I was nervous.

minutes, 45 secondsUm, I would like to add that I did serve on the Eskanaba City Planning Commission and I also served on our Eskanaba minutes, 53 secondsDowntown Development Authority.

I'm a strong community leader when it comes to community awareness and small business advocacy, having been a small business minutes, 2 secondsowner myself, and I do have my degree in early childhood development.

minutes, 6 secondsThank you.

Uh, Dave Prestin, anything more you'd like to add?

I'm good.

minutes, 9 secondsYou're good.

Uh Sarah Kmenzy, anything more you would like to add?

minutes, 12 secondsSure.

You know what really prompted me to step up and run for the state representative position was when the Empire Mine closed in 2016 and watching minutes, 21 seconds350 jobs leave our community made me question why we weren't doing more locally.

So that really was the impetus for me stepping up and running.

minutes, 30 secondsThank you.

Our next question uh will go uh to Nicole Walton.

It pertains to affordability and it will first be answered by Dave Prestin.

minutes, 40 secondsSo filling our gas tanks and our grocery carts seems to be getting more expensive by the week and every type of bill minutes, 48 secondsresidents pay seems to be getting bigger each month.

If you are elected senator, how would you address the high cost of living?

Mr.

Preston?

minutes, 59 secondsWell, you know, owning a owning a truck stop that I purchased during the subprime crisis in '07, I walked into minutes, 6 secondsthat business uh with five to $6 gasoline and diesel at that time.

So, this is this feels like a repeat of that minutes, 14 secondsthat time.

Um, as you watch, you know, the the prices of of petroleum and transportation and construction cross minutes, 21 secondsripple through the entire economy.

Um, unfortunately, I think the leading drivers right now are international and minutes, 29 secondsand global.

Uh, and that just really is not within, you know, the state footprint.

However, there are things that we can do right now.

There's a push minutes, 37 secondsto remove the excise tax off of fuel, which would give um consumers a 55cent minutes, 44 secondssavings.

But, you know, absent of the the things that we can do on the local and the state level, um our federal representatives are really in and the minutes, 52 secondsexecutive are really in the driver's seat on this.

You know, as far as cost of living across housing, food, and everything else, they're all tied minutestogether.

Um energy is the the lifeblood to everything else that we consume.

Um and with energy goes everything else.

minutes, 9 secondsyou know, housing, we're seeing so many problems from supply chains, workforce development, um, regulation.

Uh, you minutes, 18 secondsknow, I think one of the biggest things that the state could do to bring down costs is to really rein in the regulatory environment in Michigan that minutes, 25 secondshas that has run wild and has really suppressed our ability to prosper.

minutes, 32 secondsMiss Kambzi, how would you address the high cost of living if elected?

You know, I think let's start with housing.

minutes, 38 secondsI what we saw were private equity firms, large-scale private equity firms getting involved in the housing market because they could make a better return on their investment there rather than the stock minutes, 47 secondsmarket.

And what that's done is it's tied up uh family housing.

It's also uh put rent on an inexcusable level to minutes, 57 secondswhere people can't afford to pay it.

So why did it take six years for the feds to get that taken care of and get them out of the housing market?

That's going minutes, 5 secondsto have an enormous effect going forward.

Healthcare is another one.

We see monopolies where they're not being broken up.

The vertical integration.

You minutes, 13 secondshave insurance companies that own hospitals that own pharmaceutical companies.

I mean, a lot of this states can push up on the feds and say do minutes, 21 secondssomething about it.

I did that with my insulin bill.

I said enough is enough.

minutes, 25 secondsPeople are dying.

And 20 states joined together to push up and finally create a generic in insulin that we've never had minutes, 32 secondsfor over a hundred years.

So the power can be vested at the state level to push up on the feds on things that we don't control and we need to do a better job of that.

minutes, 42 secondsAnd Miss Van Van Genhovven, how would you address the high cost of living?

minutes, 46 secondsYes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Uh I believe the high cost of living is a generational issue.

It's something that we talk about every election and it's something that's minutes, 55 secondsnot going to change.

So instead of worrying about specific topics, we need to have an overall broad comprehensive approach to this.

Uh, my way to combat minutes, 4 secondsaffordability is by increasing the minimum wage in incremental increases through 2030.

I would like to see a minutes, 12 secondsminimum wage of $20 an hour by 2030.

Uh, I have worked every minimum wage job that there is to be had in the Upper minutes, 19 secondsPeninsula.

A majority of our upper peninsula residents work in retail, tourism, and service, which are all minimum wage jobs.

So, how do we also uh ensure that we're able to afford that?

minutes, 31 secondsWe have to stop with the corporate welfare.

We have to stop uh giving the big box stores their tax breaks, their minutes, 39 secondstax abatements, and we need to make them pay their fair share.

Uh I I think that by doing that, we will be able to uh minutes, 48 secondsafford a a higher minimum wage and therefore affordability won't be so difficult for our UP residents.

minutes, 56 secondsUh thank you, Kelly.

Again, each candidate now has 30 seconds for additional comment or to rebut what someone else may have said.

Dave Prestin, we begin with you.

minutes, 6 secondsI would just say that, you know, as far as minimum wage is concerned, you know, ESTA that came through the Supreme Court and was modified by on a bipartisan minutes, 14 secondsbasis by the House and the Senate, you know, already has, you know, increases in the minimum wage and really for small minutes, 22 secondsbusiness, you know, egregious expectations regarding paid time off.

minutes, 25 secondsUm, and I'm hearing about it from employers across the upper peninsula.

minutes, 29 secondsYou know, as as a former employee employer, I can tell you that this would have severely hit my operation in in minutes, 36 secondsCedar River.

Um, and in that walking further away from the free market is not the answer.

minutes, 43 secondsThank you.

Uh, Sarah Kmenzy, you know, I too believe in capitalism, but what's wrong with it is there's cronyism and it's out of control.

And I minutes, 51 secondsthink we need to get back to the priorities.

We need to elect people that can stand up and make the right decisions and not go along with whatever everyone else is doing because minutes, 59 secondspoliticians know upfront what the outcome is going to be.

We get analytical uh reports that tell us if we minutes, 8 secondsvote yes, this is what will happen.

And we need more politicians that have the courage to stand up and say no and fight for the people.

minutes, 15 secondsThank you, Sara Cambensy.

Uh Kelly, uh yes, thank you.

uh in order to ensure that small businesses are not taking a minutes, 23 secondshit on the minimum wage increase, I would institute some tax incentives for small businesses to do those incremental minutes, 31 secondsuh increases through 2030.

And we also have to remember that uh being bought out by special interests through pack minutes, 38 secondsdonations is not the way to go.

We need to make sure that our political leaders and our legislators are working for the people and not the special interests who pad their pockets.

minutes, 49 secondsThank you candidates.

Our next topic is the 24% marijuana tax.

TV 6's Brady Meyer will ask the question with Sarah minutes, 57 secondsKimzi responding first.

Several Michigan dispensaries have been critical of the wholesale marijuana tax that went into effect at the beginning of the year, minutes, 5 secondsincluding Higher Love, which directly attributed the closing of five dispensaries in the UP to a mounting tax burden.

Do you believe the benefits of minutes, 12 secondsthis tax outweigh the impacts on the marijuana industry?

I believe this was a short-term fix.

Um, you know, anytime minutes, 20 secondsthat you try and fund programs, uh, road funding, wherever the money is going to go, and it's a a sin tax, as they like minutes, 28 secondsto call it, um, that's not guaranteed revenue where you can count on it yearbyear.

And I think we heard from the marijuana industry that if you tax us minutes, 37 secondsand if you come at us, this is what will happen.

And sure enough, just about everything that they told us has happened.

So, you know, a lot of the minutes, 45 secondslong-term fixes we need for other things that we take care of, corrections, infrastructure, schools, we can't fund minutes, 53 secondsoff of, you know, harming and putting it all on one business.

And, you know, I think it's something that we definitely definitely need to look at and use it as minutes, 1 seconda lesson going forward.

This is not the way to solve our our largest problems of funding in the state.

minutes, 8 secondsKelly, do you believe the benefits of this tax outweigh the impact on the marijuana industry?

minutes, 13 secondsI do not.

I stand with our marijuana industry and the leaders and the small business owners especially in the cannabis industry who are getting minutes, 22 secondssqueezed out by this tax.

Uh there is there is a lot to be said when people say there is an oversaturation of the minutes, 30 secondscannabis mark market.

All we have to do is look at every small town in our upper peninsula to every large town in our minutes, 38 secondsupper peninsula where we see the the um auto repair parts store.

We see the uh minutes, 45 secondsbars and liquor stores.

And we have to stop uh targeting our cannabis industry.

minutes, 51 secondsUh for the cannabis excess tax, I would repeal it.

Uh I think this uh will help our small businesses to be able to minutes, 58 secondsthrive again uh in the cannabis industry.

And what I would like to see is a 12.5% uh tax on cannabis and a 12.5% tax on minutes, 8 secondsliquor.

And we can equate that out.

Uh I do believe that the tax is needed uh the tax revenue is needed, but I believe minutes, 16 secondsthrough allocating different resources within our budget, we'll be able to make up for that.

minutes, 21 secondsAnd Dave, what do you think about this wholesale marijuana tax and the impact that it's had on the industry?

So that was part of our roads package um that we minutes, 29 secondspassed and you know the taxation the disproportionate taxation of what's considered dearit goods on society uh minutes, 37 secondshas a long history um and this is another one of them.

Now is there there's definitely favoritism built into this due to the the differential between minutes, 46 secondsthe vertically integrated systems and the independent stores.

the independent stores are are really being put into a squeeze in this and I wish that there minutes, 54 secondswas an answer um to protect them.

But, you know, living in Monomony County near Monomony, which has an unbelievable minutes, 1 secondoversaturation of of dispensaries and where the public has has voted, I think we're at around 80% to reign them in minutes, 9 secondsbecause it's out of control.

Um, I I stand behind this tax.

I think it's it's needed.

It's one of the areas where the minutes, 16 secondsgeneral public is protected.

Um and again this this additional revenue stream is going to fall on a new aspect minutes, 24 secondsin society that that is definitely as a paramedic I can tell you it's having profound effects on our health care system um because I've lived it.

minutes, 34 secondsOkay candidates another 30 seconds for each of you again if you want to add on to what you said or rebut what someone else said and uh Sarah we begin with minutes, 42 secondsyou.

You know, I just think that the legislature um for one reason or another looked at this as a way that they could minutes, 50 secondsincrease revenue and not listen to the people who actually run the businesses and are in the industry.

And you know, it's something whether it's it's the minutes, 58 secondsmarijuana industry or another one.

Um it just points to how important it is to work together with our small businesses, minutes, 5 secondswhether you support them or or like what they do or not.

um and get back to what is actually a fair tax and a long-term minutes, 14 secondsfix for some of our infrastructure rather than just going after one group.

Thank you, Kelli van Ginhoven.

minutes, 21 secondsUh yes, to address Mr.

Preston's comment, uh Monomony County has seen the highest increase in revenue due to their minutes, 28 secondsquote unquote oversaturation of the cannabis market in their county, which has led them to be able to do many wonderful things within their county.

minutes, 36 secondsUm, what we also have to consider is that the beer and wine industry with their packs have donated to candidates, minutes, 43 secondsuh, not me.

Uh, and I think that's a reason why a lot of things are happening with, uh, the marijuana industry and why minutes, 51 secondsthey're being targeted versus beer, wine, and liquor.

Thank you.

minutes, 55 secondsThank you.

Uh, Dave Prestin, final thoughts on the marijuana tax issue.

minutes, 59 secondsYes, the the monetary benefits are not worth the health consequences.

um whether you're talking to police or EMS professionals like myself that have minutes, 7 secondsserved in that area, the disparity between the revenue and the consequence on the community minutes, 14 secondscouldn't couldn't be more I guess aware when you're out in the field minutes, 21 secondstreating people um dealing with this and on the economic side we had when this minutes, 28 secondswhen this package was passed we had almost unanimous support across all stakeholders from MAC, MTA, uh, roads, minutes, 37 secondsuh, the only stakeholder against was the marijuana industry.

minutes, 41 secondsThank you.

Our next topic concerns tourism and its impacts on our communities.

Walt Lindel of Meteor Communications will ask that question uh, of Kelli van Ginhoven first.

minutes, 53 secondsThe state of Michigan has funded the promotion of Michigan as a tourist destination to much success.

The success however has resulted in municipalities minutes, 2 secondsaround the district having their infrastructures challenged by the increased amounts of visitors that are coming to use the parks, using the minutes, 10 secondstrails, the streets, general utilities in a city uh or a municipality.

What would you do if elected to get more minutes, 17 secondsmoney back from the state to help municipalities on a local level pay for the maintenance and repairs that are related to the increased tourism the state is helping to bring in?

minutes, 29 secondsHow would you help them?

minutes, 31 secondsThank you.

Uh I spoke with uh several residents in Muning who have seen a tremendous uptick uh in their tourism minutes, 38 secondswith Pictured Rocks from the Pure Michigan campaign over the last several years.

And what they asked of me was if minutes, 46 secondsI would consider bringing forward a a tax allowance where they would be able to institute a luxury tax or a tourism minutes, 54 secondstax which would then help their uh municipalities, their counties, uh their uh townships.

And I think that's a great minutes, 3 secondsway to uh rather defer from the state and be able uh to help small businesses minutes, 11 secondsthrive.

uh what we have to do is not look at our uh state legislature, our senators, our uh representatives to be minutes, 20 secondsthe savior of the do-all endall for our um for every issue that we that we face.

And so I would be in favor of this tax.

minutes, 29 secondsI know several states do it, a luxury tax, a tourism tax, and then we'll be able to defer that to the counties and the municipalities.

minutes, 37 secondsDave Prestin, uh, in terms of getting support back to the locals to basically pay for the added usage, what would you minutes, 45 secondswork to do?

Uh, continue to work with the local units of government, you know, being being on the fire department and, you minutes, 52 secondsknow, really going out into the lake, doing rescues, you know, going into the campground.

We have Well State Park minutesright where I live, um, the marina.

I see it.

our Cedar River quadruples if not more so in size from from winter to summer.

So the the the task is real.

minutes, 11 secondsIt's just the implementation and how do we get there?

Who pays for it?

What aspect of the economy pays for it?

Um minutes, 18 secondsyou know, I'm I'm all for it and I'm I'm very much a pro-local control representative.

Um, but at the end of the day, you know, somebody has to pay minutes, 27 secondsthat tax and we need to talk to stakeholders and and make sure that whether it's hotels or it's a a sales minutes, 35 secondstax, a local sales tax, that everybody's on the the same page and where they want to go and how they want to collect.

minutes, 41 secondsAnd Sara Cambensy, how would you address this, particularly with your background in a community like Marquette?

Yeah.

So, minutes, 48 secondsI worked a lot on uh this bill and what I called it the tourism tax.

So, basically right now um our hotels pay an minutes, 58 secondsadditional 5% at 6% in the UP and that goes to Pure Michigan.

It goes to our uh minutes, 4 secondsconvention bis uh visitors bureaus.

Um but we don't do it on Airbnbs.

minutes, 10 secondsAnd so right now um we're leaving a lot of money on the table.

you travel to other states, you see the tax if you stay in an Airbnb.

We're not doing that minutes, 19 secondshere.

And so I came up with with a bill that it would go county by county and there would be no taxation without the representation of the the counties minutes, 27 secondsapproving it, but it would basically create parody.

So par in that tax that the hotels are already seeing.

Um what minutes, 35 secondscould this money go back for?

Local infrastructure, police, fire, um specifically immunosine where they have to go out and rescue a lot of tourists.

minutes, 42 secondsUm, the biggest challenge of this was Pure Michigan that wanted more money.

minutes, 47 secondsAnd if you have if you've read articles in Traverse City right now, they're dealing with the same thing where, you know, $9 million revenue is made just minutes, 54 secondsoff the hotel side tax.

Imagine if our local communities could have that same taxation to put towards local services.

minutes, 2 secondsSo, that's what I do.

minutes, 3 secondsUh, once again, each candidate will have an additional 30 seconds on this topic.

Beginning with Kelli van Ginhoven.

minutes, 9 secondsUh, yes.

to rib up Miss Campbenzy's suggestion for the Airbnb tax.

minutes, 13 secondsUnfortunately, that doesn't work because we have a lot of, uh, townships, uh, cities, and counties that are going to minutes, 20 secondsstart putting limitations on the amount of Airbnbs that are allowable in their areas.

Uh, and we also have some minutes, 28 secondstownships that are going to be striking out Airbnbs.

The ones that are there now will be grandfathered in.

Um, however, minutes, 35 secondswe need to start looking at a specific tax for for tourism and luxury.

Uh, that's the only way we're going to be minutes, 43 secondsable to thrive.

Uh, we cannot do uh Airbnb.

We c we cannot do Airbnb tax.

It's just not going to work.

minutes, 51 secondsUh, thank you, Kelly.

Dave Prestin, additional thoughts on this tourism delay.

minutes, 54 secondsYeah, short-term rentals.

um it would provide some needed income in in certain areas of the upper peninsula, but at the minutes, 2 secondsend of the day, an economy cannot exist on tourism alone.

In a lot of ways, the tourism is is the topping.

It's the minutes, 10 secondsfrosting on the cake.

It's the whipped cream on the Sunday.

Um the upper peninsula needs to diversify.

minutes, 16 secondsAnd when when you have priv a private economy, a thriving private economy, a lot of the services that we're looking minutes, 23 secondsto bolster within our communities to take up for this time and and the amount of people that come into our communities minutes, 31 secondscan really be grown organically through a prospering economy, which the UP desperately needs.

minutes, 37 secondsThank you.

Uh Sara Cambensy, any additional comment?

minutes, 40 secondsYeah, Airbnbs aren't going away, and if you don't want them, then you don't have a tax on them.

you don't get any revenue.

Um, but the UP has long had minutes, 48 secondscottages that they've rented out to people to family members that they know um, who help them pay their taxes.

So, minutes, 54 secondsit would help people keep uh, the land in the the cottages that they own.

It'll help communities that have Airbnbs or minutes, 3 secondsAirbnbs and allow them to collect some revenue.

And it'll kind of mimic what other states are doing, putting that use minutes, 10 secondstax not on the community or the residents.

This is a use tax that the people renting them would pay.

minutes, 17 secondsThank you, Sarah.

Our next uh topic pertains to the potential return of copper mining to the upper peninsula, specifically the western Upper minutes, 25 secondsPeninsula.

It would be asked by Nicole Walton of Dave Prestin.

minutes, 29 secondsThe Michigan Strategic Fund recently granted $50 million to the Copperwood Mine Project in Goic County.

Supporters minutes, 38 secondssay the mine would bring jobs to an area that has struggled economically, while opponents say it would create tons of minutes, 45 secondstoxic tailings near Lake Superior.

What is your view of the proposed mine?

minutes, 52 secondsI'm I'm a a full supporter of it.

I spoke on behalf of it at the MSF, you know, meeting where they took the vote.

minutesum getting out on the west end talking to residents out there um that went through minutes, 8 secondsthe shutdown of White Pine and the 1,600 jobs that left and all of the other industries that that fell off on that minutes, 15 secondsside of of the UP pretty much all at the same time left the Western UP in in a state of complete economic devastation.

minutes, 24 secondsThey've lost a hospital.

um they're losing the ability to even staff basic public sector offices, township minutes, 32 secondsadministrators, um county boards.

You you're seeing multiple hats worn by the same people across across government.

Um they are minutes, 41 secondsliterally running out of people.

The elderly are scared for their safety.

um what's it like to live over an hour away minutes, 48 secondsfrom the from the nearest point of of critical access or level two trauma center um when you're in your 70s and minutes, 55 secondsyour 80s that side of the upper peninsula desperately needs an injection you know of of economy of jobs of tax minutes, 4 secondsrevenue and investment and that's what this that's what this project in the end does is it's infrastructure investment it's not investment in the copper wood minutes, 13 secondsmine it's infra it's infrastructure investment in in everything around it.

Thank you, Dave.

minutes, 19 secondsAnd Miss Kambzzi, what is your opinion of the Copperwood mine project?

minutes, 24 secondsSo, I support the mine.

I think there are much better ways that the state can partner to make sure that um our industries are successful.

And I spent a minutes, 32 secondslot of time um when I was in office working on mining.

And my first bill was actually to create a a Michigan mining minutes, 40 secondsfuture committee made up of industry, state departments, tribal members, environmental groups, local government, and university re researchers to say, minutes, 48 seconds"How do we mine better?

We're not going to mine like we did a century ago."

Um and that that also brings up the question of you know how do we fund it minutes, 57 secondsand I think the state has no obligation to fund um what a mine should be able to bring to the table.

So let the mines if minutes, 6 secondsthey can reach the rigorous uh environmental standards that we've set that are higher here than anywhere else in the world.

Um let them get the minutes, 13 secondsfunding behind that and then if the mine opens I think we have some tools.

uh Governor Snyder created the good jobs minutes, 22 secondsfor Michigan where we're willing to partner and say we'll give a percentage of the income tax for all the new jobs you create back to you for x amount of minutes, 31 secondsyears as our way of saying you're bringing in more revenue to the state and you're creating jobs and you're investing in those communities.

So, um I minutes, 39 secondssupport mining.

I I just do not support the economic model that went forward a couple of weeks ago.

minutes, 46 secondsAnd Miss Van Ginhovven, what is your view of the Copperwood mine project?

minutes, 51 secondsI am adamantly opposed to the Copperwood mine project.

I do not believe that 50 million of our Michigan taxpayer dollars minutes, 58 secondsshould be going to a foreign company that can't stand on its own two feet.

minutes, 3 secondsAnd one thing I would like to address is that the Michigan Strategic Fund is a board of unelected officials who tried minutes, 10 secondsto circumvent our government in order to get these funds to Highland Copper.

$44 million will go directly to Highland minutes, 18 secondswhile $5 million will be used for infrastructure development to that mine.

minutes, 23 secondsSo the thought that it's going to be used to help our communities is a farce.

minutes, 27 secondsUh Protect the Porkies is suing the Michigan Strategic Fund based on the way those funds are planning to be dispersed minutes, 35 secondsand uh MSF needs to be dismantled.

I'm going to take it a step further and see it needs to be defa dismantled.

Uh this is un unelected officials that are uh minutes, 45 secondspatting their pockets.

Uh there are special interests sitting on on that board, including Marty Fatante with Invest Up, who has had a horrible record minutes, 52 secondswhen he talks about affordable housing and then lists it for $2,800 a month.

Uh we need to learn from our mistakes, uh not re not repeat them.

minutes, 2 secondsThank you, Kelly.

minutes, 4 secondsOkay, candidates, uh 30 seconds to add on to the comments, and I have a feeling each of you will want to.

Dave Prestin, we begin with you.

I'll just remind minutes, 11 secondseverybody that Copperwood is a fully permitted project and and as as much as the hyperbole would like to suggest, the minutes, 19 secondsmonies do not go straight into Copperwood.

In fact, quite the contrary.

minutes, 23 secondsThey go into roads, internet, energy distribution, natural gas, a possible extension of transmission, although minutes, 31 secondsthere, you know, there there's the energy situation regarding that mine is still yet to be determined.

But at the end of the day, these all of the aspects minutes, 40 secondsof this investment fall within a 9010 ratio.

When Walmart comes into a town, what does it get to enjoy?

A supply of minutes, 47 secondswater, a supply of sewer, a supply of roads.

That call all comes to them for free.

This is a major investment in the western Upper Peninsula that desperately minutes, 56 secondsneeds it.

And it is the state's duty to help them get into get into business in an area where there is absolutely minutes, 4 secondsno baseline support for the materials and the products and the the people, the minutes, 11 secondshousing that they that they're going to need for this project.

Thank you, Dave.

minutes, 15 secondsSarah, well, I agree with Representative Preston that the money is going um to the local community and I I have no problem with that.

My thing is is that minutes, 24 secondswe're picking winners and losers.

And the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has a horrible track record of only creating 9 to 11% of the jobs minutes, 32 secondsthat they promise because we're uploading on the front end with taxpayer dollars that could be used for other services and other infrastructure.

So minutes, 40 secondsagain, I go back to um let's support these businesses and industries that want to come here and if they're minutes, 48 secondssuccessful, if they have a business plan, if they get the bank funding and can prove that they can operate here and meet those high standards with the minutes, 55 secondsenvironment, that's when we can reward them at the end of that, not at the beginning.

minutesThank you.

And Kelli van Ginhoven, 30 seconds.

minutes, 3 secondsUh yes, I'd just like to address three things.

Number one, our tribes are not on board with this project and nobody seems to be asking them what they feel minutes, 11 secondsor how they feel about this.

This is about so their sovereignty, their treaty rights, their fishing rights, and if there is a catastrophe in our Lake minutes, 18 secondsSuperior because of this Copperwood development, um we're never going to be able to go back from that.

Uh number two, I'd like to address the uh strictest uh regulations in the world.

minutes, 30 secondsThat is false.

I would encourage everyone to look up part 632 which was a commens and Caspersonson sponsored uh minutes, 38 secondslegislation.

We do not have the most stringent uh environmental impact or environmental uh uh regulations in the minutes, 46 secondsworld and no nowhere in the state do we give small businesses an opportunity to be state funded.

minutes, 56 secondsThank you.

minutes, 57 secondsYou're welcome.

Our uh next topic pertains to uh regulating the upper peninsula's natural resources.

The minutes, 4 secondsquestion will be asked by Brady Meyer and it will go to Sara Cambensy first.

minutes, 9 secondsSarah, the DNR in recent years has pushed back on several proposals to create a separate natural resources commission made up just of UP residents minutes, 17 secondssaying it already proposes uh regulations based on the different peninsulas.

Do you support creating a UPNRC?

Why or why not?

minutes, 25 secondsYou know, I'm going to push back on this.

I I don't think it's the best way forward and I think there's some constitutional um issues with it and that you know the resources of the state minutes, 33 secondsbelong to everyone.

So how do we kind of sever off and make the EPS separate?

Um I do think that we have a severe funding minutes, 42 secondsshortage um in the DNR department.

you know, there was a a Republican um minutes, 49 secondskind of push to defund them or take out $40 million from them, which is, you know, it's the absolute wrong direction to go.

I mean, just minutes, 57 secondsbecause we don't like what we're do they're doing doesn't mean that we should defund them or make it harder for them.

I think we need to understand that minutes, 5 secondsum we've got a you know, 33% of the land mass in Michigan.

Um, we've got a lot of the natural resources and we do need minutes, 13 secondsmore resources up here to manage our wolves, our moose, um, our deer.

So, these are important issues that I think minutes, 20 secondsrather than penalize them or separate from the rest of the state, I think we need to work better with them and figure out what they need so that we can help them fund that.

minutes, 30 secondsKelly, do you support creating a UP specific natural resources commission?

minutes, 34 secondsI do not.

I believe we need to work as one state, one Michigan.

And what we have seen over the last decade under Republican leadership is constant push minutes, 43 secondsback and fighting with our DNR.

And I wish that our Republican leadership would spend as much uh time uh realizing minutes, 50 secondsthat we need to focus on health care and public schools and infrastructure as much time as they spend with uh fighting our DNR.

Does the DNR do everything minutes, 58 secondsperfectly?

No, they do not.

But I believe if we work together and have a collaborative and cohesive relationship with our DNR, we'd get a lot farther up minutes, 6 secondshere.

And Dave, do you think a UP NRC is needed?

Well, because it's my bill.

Absolutely.

minutes, 13 secondsUm, you know, the UPNRC, what I said in committee is it's a tale of two peninsulas.

You know, we have an minutes, 21 secondsincredible disproportionate predator population up here between black bear, um, wolves, cougar, they have elk, we minutes, 29 secondshave moose.

Um, we're seeing tremendous declines in white tail as well as moose populations.

There are studies that that are ongoing on that.

You know, you look minutes, 38 secondsup into Alaska and there's a definite uh bifurcation across the entire state on game and land management.

Um and the UP minutes, 47 secondsis no different.

We are a completely different peninsula from downstate.

Um southern portions of downstate are completely overcrowded with whitetail.

minutes, 55 secondsUm up in the UP, areas that used to thrive um are people are lucky if they see a deer in an entire season.

Um, the minutes, 4 secondsDNR has shown nothing but an insatiable desire for money.

And when you're talking about increasing license fees minutes, 11 secondsand and jacking uh senior citizens 30%, they didn't sign up for that for moving fishing licenses to kids as young as 16. minutes, 21 secondsHow's grandpa supposed to take his his grandson fishing?

I mean, we're pulling the rug right out from underneath the people that are in the most desperate minutes, 29 secondssituation as far as monetary wise.

Thank you.

We shouldn't be changing the the rules to to fill the coffers.

minutes, 40 secondsOkay, we've got 30 seconds each.

Sorry to cut you off, but I'm going to going to give you that additional 30 seconds to talk about uh this topic and how we minutes, 48 secondsregulate our natural resources.

Sarah, do you have additional comment?

minutes, 51 secondsI do.

So, you know, it's a multi-prong issue up here.

We've got a lot of logging going on and what we know is that that's completely uh you know minutesdisrupted the deer habitat.

Um we know that the black bear population is extremely overgrown.

Um we're getting a minutes, 7 secondsbetter handle on the wolves, but we also know that as those predators come in um a few harsh winters, they can decimate a minutes, 15 secondspopulation.

And so it's a multi-prong issue and again I think the best thing we can do is simply work together with the DNR and try and figure out how to minutes, 24 secondsbest work with our logging companies um get more funding for them but also get the sportsman together because sometimes they can even be at odds with themselves.

minutes, 33 secondsThank you.

Uh Kelli van Ginhoven, anything you would like to add on this topic?

minutes, 36 secondsYes, I would like to bring forward the concept that we need to uh discuss this issue with our native tribes.

They have been here far longer than we have and minutes, 45 secondsthey have always been able to manage the herds and so uh I have spent a lot of time talking with our local tribes here minutes, 54 secondsin the upper peninsula on wildlife management and I think uh using them and the DNR together we're going to be able to figure this out.

minutes, 1 secondThank you.

And Dave, I cut you off earlier.

Is there anything more you'd like to say in this topic?

I think the biggest thing is that you know my bill package regarding a UPNRC really tries minutes, 10 secondsto to take away the political appointment non-subject matter experts aspect out of a UPNRC that currently minutes, 19 secondsexists in the NRC.

Um we want good game management um not political game management and that ultimately was where this bill bill bill's intention lies.

minutes, 30 secondsThank you.

Our next topic pertains to education funding.

It will be asked by Walt Lindelof of Kelli van Ginhoven.

minutes, 39 secondsK through 12 and higher education in Michigan are both continuing to have continued declines in enrollment, which has resulted in both public school minutes, 47 secondsdistricts as well as the state's public universities to have less money to operate and pay for programs and for their people.

What role do you see for minutes, 56 secondsthe state to fund efforts to address funding shortcomings in education?

And do you see an acrosstheboard formula or something different?

minutes, 6 seconds[clears throat] minutes, 8 secondsWell, I'm a large proponent for K through 12 uh funding.

I think that we need to get that equal with our higher minutes, 15 secondseducation funding because it's not equal under this uh current state budget.

Um, we have seen no substantial investment minutes, 24 secondsin our K through2 public schools under Republican leadership and we have to have a convers we h we have to have conversations all the time about this, minutes, 32 secondsnot just during election season.

Uh we we have to be able to rip apart our state budget, reallocate funds, look at minutes, 40 secondsthe current allocations, figure out where we're falling short.

We need to consider a redesign of our um of our minutes, 50 secondsstructure not being rural but being frontier.

And I think that's going to open up a whole new funding uh funding minutes, 57 secondsresource for us in the upper peninsula because when we look at what the state considers rural versus what the state could consider frontier, I think we minutes, 6 secondscould be very advantageous in taking uh part in that frontier status.

Uh we have to make sure that our staff is being adequately paid and that our teachers minutes, 14 secondsdon't have to work two jobs to make it by.

And I'll address it more in my rebutt.

Thank you.

minutes, 19 secondsUh Dave Prestin, what role do you see for the state to fund education efforts to address these shortcomings that are minutes, 26 secondscoming from declining enrollment?

And is it an acrosstheboard funding formula or do you see something different?

minutes, 34 secondsyou know, the per pup the per pupil foundational allowance has been increased the last three budget cycles in a row.

Um K through2 funding when I minutes, 42 secondstalked to the superintendent is not is not the issue.

You know where you know where does the genesis in the decrease minutes, 49 secondsin enrollment lie.

I I think the enrollment cliff, the lack of of births, the decrease in in children that we're minutes, 56 secondshaving is manifesting itself across the system, both probably at at homeschoolers, ummies, as well as the public schools.

At the end of the day, we just got to get better at what we do.

minutes, 7 secondsI think uh school consolidation is is something that we need to continue to press upon because we just simply don't have the kids that we used to.

And with minutes, 16 secondsthe with the fewer kids and the fewer educational facilities servicing these children, travel times are getting minutes, 23 secondslonger and longer.

So the traditional method of of delivery um I believe in but we've just got to start getting minutes, 32 secondssmarter about it in the upper peninsula because we don't have the children that we used to.

minutes, 37 secondsAnd Sara Cambensy, uh what role do you see for the state to help address some of these funding shortfalls?

And do you see it as a one-sizefits-all or something different?

minutes, 46 secondsI think we're seeing it across the board.

Um, you know, one of the solutions that's been talked about is a a 4 day school week.

Um, so let's have minutes, 55 secondsthem go four days, maybe a little longer, but um, that's one day where you don't need people in the building, you don't need the lights on, you don't need the buses running.

And in the UP, some of our districts are 144 square miles.

minutes, 6 secondsThat's a lot of lot of miles to travel to bus kids.

um you know online education I think as our universities do minutes, 14 secondsmore and more online um curriculum you know what are their needs going to be in in the next couple of years do they need minutes, 21 secondsthese big campuses it's a question we need to ask um as schools uh you know shrink can they be consolidated not a minutes, 30 secondspopular subject but we need to talk about it and lastly I just want to mention that um Lansing and legislators are not the ones that should be minutes, 39 secondsmandating what schools do and I see it all the time where they keep putting these mandates in, keep putting uh more minutes, 46 secondshurdles for educators to jump over.

Not the solution at all.

In fact, that just drives up the cost.

So, I think there's some uh you know, responsibility that minutes, 56 secondslegislators need to take to say time out.

minutes, 59 secondsThank you.

Uh again, uh Kelly, I know you wanted to to add additional time and you each have 30 seconds to do so.

minutes, 5 secondsThank you.

uh to address immediate issues, I would definitely get rid of our voucher programs for private and parochial schools.

Uh I also believe minutes, 12 secondsthat we have a reduction in enrollment through higher education because we're pushing our our trade schools and our apprenticeship apprenticeship programs, minutes, 21 secondswhich is wonderful.

And so we are going to start to see that pendulum swing where enrollment is going to be down in our two and four-year un uh minutes, 28 secondsuniversities.

But what I would like to see is more of those certificate uh programs coming to fruition so that our minutes, 35 secondsPE uh so that our students can still attend college and uh work in the trades at the same time.

Uh to rebut Miss Cambenzi, I feel like a school a 4-day minutes, 44 secondsschool week is disastrous for for K through2 schools.

We live in a very poor uh poor socioeconomic area.

And if those minutes, 52 secondskids are only going to school four days a week, they're not getting breakfast, they're not getting lunch, which is something that they only get when they come to school.

minutesThank you, Kelly.

Dave Prestin, additional thought.

minutes, 3 secondsYeah, regarding the un, you know, the unfunded mandates, you know, Sarah's 100% right.

We have a bad habit of just minutes, 11 secondsdropping things on our schools without talking.

I've got a I've got a a hot button list of superintendent that I minutes, 18 secondscall whenever whenever Lansing starts to go, you know, astray and and get their perspective on it and I immediately go to work, especially if it adversely minutes, 26 secondsimpacts the the upper peninsula.

And I go to work on my caucus right away try trying to either, you know, get an amendment that carves us out or or bring minutes, 34 secondssome common sense to the legislation that they're considering.

But again, Lansing a lot of times with its minutes, 41 secondsone-sizefits-all approach just forgets about the upper peninsula.

minutes, 45 secondsThank you, Dave.

And Sara Cambensy, I just want to touch a little bit on our uh CTE programs and the trades because I minutes, 53 secondsdo believe that um you know, a a lot of students don't go to college.

I think they're doing it right and that they have these apprenticeship programs that minutes, 1 secondare fully funded by themselves.

And so, you know, I think a lot of our students up here, how do we keep kids in the UP?

minutes, 8 secondsUm, right now the electricians have a weight list of roughly 400 kids that are just waiting to get in to be an apprentice um so that they can be a minutes, 16 secondsjourneyman.

And so, you know, I think that's really something that also has to enter the conversation is um we've got a great uh you know, privately run minutes, 25 secondsapprenticeship program in the skilled trades and we need to make room for that.

minutes, 31 secondsThank you candidates.

Uh that concludes the first portion of our Michigan 38th Senate District Candidate Forum.

The questioning will continue, but first we minutes, 39 secondswill pause to allow the candidates time to take a breath, have some water, and regroup for the second half of our program.

Stay tuned.

We will be right back.

minutes, 1 secondHello everyone.

I'm Mike Settles and this is what's up.

A good percentage of Upper Peninsula voters are expected to vote absentee.

They will complete their minutes, 9 secondsballot at home and mail it back to their clerk's office.

However, many voters still prefer to cast their ballot in person.

The question is, do you know minutes, 18 secondsyour various options for voting?

Here to tell us more is Marquette County Clerk Linda Tolsma.

Linda, welcome.

Um, this year there has been a lot of buzz around minutes, 26 secondsmail-in ballots and the delivery of them and whether uh folks if they put them back into the mail will get to the clerk's office in time.

How do you minutes, 34 secondsaddress those concerns that are out there?

minutes, 36 secondsSo, if you're expecting an absentee ballot, um, what I want you to do first, if you haven't received it, is check with your local clerk's office.

If your minutes, 43 secondslocal clerk's office has has told you, okay, yes, we've mailed it.

You should be getting it at about this time.

You can also check with my office as well at the county.

We're always there to help.

minutes, 54 secondsSo, I mentioned in person voting if somebody doesn't necessarily want to do the mail option.

Um, what options do they have to to vote in person?

minutes, 3 secondsSo, you can you can of course come on election day, but I'm really going to try and push that early voting because you're paying it for it as a taxpayer.

minutes, 12 secondsSo, let's utilize it.

So, you have nine days of early voting and you need to just find out where you're registered to minutes, 19 secondsvote and where your early vote center is.

minutes, 22 secondsUm and then on day uh of voting uh November 3rd hours for voting.

minutes, 28 secondsIt's the polls are going to open at 7 a.m.

and close at 8:00 pm at night.

So definitely come out and see us if you can.

minutes, 36 secondsIf you can quickly tell us too um folks have the opportunity to tabulate their own ballot.

What does that mean and why is that an attraction?

minutes, 43 secondsSo we have of course this very large ballot, right?

So you have two sides.

minutes, 49 secondsPeople like to have that given to them in the mail or they like to just go into their clerk's office and say, "Hey, can I get an absentee ballot?"

So then they minutes, 58 secondslike to take it home.

They like to look at it.

They like to actually do their homework on it and they're going to go ahead and decide who they want to vote for because there is many races.

Now the minutes, 7 secondsnice part of that is is you don't have to normal you don't have to not only just drop an AV box or bring it to your local clerk's office.

What you can now minutes, 15 secondsdo is you can go in on election day or on the early vote center and actually flip that AV application or um ballot to minutes, 24 secondsnow an inperson and then you can actually tabulate it yourself.

So yeah, and then you know it's being delivered and it's going to count.

To minutes, 33 secondsconfirm that you are registered to find your polling location, what's on your ballot, and more, check out these helpful sites.

The Michigan Voter minutes, 40 secondsInformation Center is at mi.gov/vote GV/vote and the League of Women Voters election information page is vote411.org.

minutes, 49 secondsMarquette County Clerk Linda Tulsmo.

minutes, 51 secondsThanks so much for joining us today.

I am Mike Settles and that's what's up.

minutes[applause] minutes, 3 secondsWelcome back to the Michigan 38th Senate District Candidate [music] Forum presented by WNMU Public Media, WLUCTV6, minutes, 11 secondsand Media Brew Communications.

The three candidates vying to become your next state senator are refreshed and ready to answer more questions from our panel of minutes, 20 secondsjournalists.

Again, each candidate will have one minute for their initial response.

For the remainder of the program, we will forego the 30 seconds minutes, 28 secondsof additional comments so that we can squeeze in as many questions as possible in the next half hour or so.

Here, our next topic pertains to energy minutes, 37 secondsgeneration.

It will be asked by Nicole Walton of Dave Prestin.

minutes, 41 secondsMichigan has set a mandate of generating 100% of electricity in the state through clean and renewable resources by 2040. minutes, 50 secondsyet the national focus seems to be reverting to petroleumbased sources.

How would you guide the UP's energy minutes, 58 secondslandscape if elected?

Mr.

Preston, so I'm the vice chair of energy um and when we were a minority and I watched minutes, 6 secondspublic act 235 come through and 233 which is the sighting mechanism.

It relegates all of our generation to basically wind, solar and battery minutes, 15 secondstechnology.

Um it it really just overlooked the necessity for the economy minutes, 21 secondsto wait for SMR micro reactor technology to come to the forefront and put us on a minutes, 28 secondspath where consumers industry are going to have to pay for dual and competing generation sources.

You know we minutes, 36 secondscurrently have the 13 natural gas generators in the UP that were brought in after Prescal and Shyrie shut down.

minutes, 43 secondsAnd you know the the thing about you know the coal generation in the upper peninsula is at that time we were generating just shy of 500 megawatts of minutes, 51 secondscapacity.

We traded that in for just under 240 megawatts of capacity.

And this [snorts] new legislation coming through when fully implemented is going minutesto lay waste to all of our natural gas generation.

And we're going to have to simultaneously pay for the bonding out of all of those those gen those natural minutes, 8 secondsgas generators as well as all of the new renewables that need to take their place.

minutes, 14 secondscompanies have the ability to um get their cost recovery back.

So, we're going to be paying for two generation sources at the same time, which is just going to explode in rates.

minutes, 24 secondsHow do you guide energy legislation or the landscape if elected?

I think we need to make some changes.

minutes, 31 secondsI think this is a great example of what happens when one party has total control and the voices of those that said, "Wait minutes, 39 secondsa minute, we're we've got assets that we're paying off.

people are going to have to pay more and we know at least in the UP more than 50% of the people up minutes, 47 secondshere whether they're seniors or low income they live at or below the p poverty level and so to put in these mandates that say we are going in one minutes, 55 secondsdirection and we're going to abandon the other it just won't work either people won't have affordability um or they won't have reliability so I think we minutes, 4 secondsneed to go back and say we need it all energy uh use is increasing but I don't think we should mandate exactly which minutes, 12 secondsones we have by what date because it it's a formula that can never really be achieved.

And I think that gives uh the minutes, 19 secondspublic, you know, false hope that we're going to do this and get there while still uh having their rates, you know, minutes, 26 secondsnot go up.

And it's it's just a false premise.

minutes, 29 secondsAnd Miss Van Ginhovven, how how would you guide the energy landscape of the UP?

minutes, 35 secondsThere needs to be a long-term plan.

Uh first of all I would like to say that I believe the rice generator generator minutes, 43 secondsunits should be able to live out their bonded life.

That's very important to me.

Uh we I do understand the necessity of these units to the mine and then the minutes, 51 secondslivelihoods of the people who work at that mine.

Uh but we need to have a long-term plan moving forward.

My plan would include a transitional 10-year minutes, 58 secondsplan to move sustainable energy plug-in solar and battery storage into the forefront.

We have to be able to compromise.

Uh what is the plan that minutes, 7 secondswe've seen so far uh is non-existent to make Whitmer's legislation come to fruition.

It's just been a fight against it.

Well, now we're behind the minutes, 16 secondseightball.

We're three and a half years behind from where we could be if we would have taken that uh legislation seriously.

Uh we need to look at grid minutes, 24 secondsmodernization for more renewable energies, electric cars, and EV charging stations which can be built and manufactured here in the UP.

they can be minutes, 31 secondsinstalled in the UP with uni with union workers and we also need to look at construction and installation of wind turbines.

minutes, 39 secondsThank you, Kelly.

Our next topic will be asked uh the question will be asked by uh Brady Meyer of WLUCTV 6.

It pertains minutes, 46 secondsto maternal and infant care and it will be asked of Sara Cambensy.

minutes, 51 secondsSo in just the last two years, hospitals in Ironwood and the QA have lost labor and delivery services.

What role can the minutes, 58 secondsstate play in ensuring women have access to this kind of care in our rural UP communities?

hour, 3 secondsI think this is almost an impossible task for the state to take on by themselves and we're going to need federal help and this comes down to uh hour, 12 secondsyou know the feds recognizing that in rural areas we're not created equal.

Um our drive times especially if you are a hour, 20 secondswoman you know soon to go into labor um it puts it puts us in a dangerous situation.

And so I think we need to hour, 27 secondsagain push up on the feds and say um time out.

You know, we're being treated much differently.

Our hospitals can't hour, 34 secondsmake it.

Um and you can't expect someone to drive three hours uh to give birth.

hour, 40 secondsSo um again, that's that's the power of the states actually saying uh this should be at the forefront of your hour, 48 secondsissues, your priorities, because it's really what the people what we're hearing that they want.

hour, 54 secondsKelly, what do you see as the state's role in ensuring women have adequate maternal care?

hour, 1 minuteYes.

Uh for maternal care and for care overall in rural health care, we need to invest uh statewide in communityowned and operated hospitals.

We need to staff those hospitals by community members caring for members of our community.

Uh we need to create a specialized fund for frontier communities like I had mentioned earlier going from rural to frontier.

Those community hospitals and those community clinics need to be built by union workers.

They need to be maintained by community unions.

We need to have a part uh we need to partner and we also need to get my care in Michigan.

I'm a very strong proponent of that.

We need to squeeze the for-profit medical care industry out of our local hospitals.

Baraga Community Hospital, Schoolcraft Community Hospital have been doing wonderfully in their areas.

uh they're expanding and we need to be able to invest in that.

It's reallocation of of statewide funds to be able to make our hospitals, our maternal care and care overall come to fruition.

And Dave, what do you think the state can do to make sure it's providing care for women in all communities across the UP?

Ultimately, you know, flowing through, you know, the productivity model, we need energy.

We need private private equity investment in the UP.

We need jobs because we cannot continue to try to survive on a public sector based economy.

Um most of our hospitals, but two are all critical access hospitals.

That's 25 beds or less, no more than four nights before they have to get transferred to a full-blown hospital.

Um we're having problems with specialists coming into the UP and staying in the UP.

Dickinson just transitioned down to a critical access hospital.

Um, Dickinson's also struggling to keeping to keeping their birthing center open.

It's it's this is not going to stop.

That's why I introduced the PA lensure compact, the nurse practitioner um uh bill that that really just removes the collaborative agreement to get nurse practitioners in a situation where they're able to provide primary care because right now our ERS are being overrun and they're being used for primary care because the primary care just doesn't exist.

Um, we can do better, but it requires the knowledge of what's what's wrong and ultimately we need to grow our economy.

Thank you, candidates.

Uh, boy, next topic is uh the housing shortage uh from across the upper peninsula here.

It will be asked by Walt Lindela of Kelli van Ginhoven.

Of course, housing issues dominate the conversations across the board in Michigan.

These are of course questions of available and affordable housing, quality of the construction of those homes that are built, their safety.

Uh do you see a role for the state in helping and developing and funding solutions to address these housing concerns in the state?

And if you do, how would it be paid for?

If you don't, why not?

Uh I do believe that the state could get involved.

I uh I think that as a state legislator uh I can really work hard to streamline and expedite permitting processes for our builders.

I think that's very important.

We also need to look at zoning.

Most of our zoning is done at the local levels, but sometimes the zoning requirements and the limitations put on those zoning uh those zoning departments uh force out duplexes, triplexes, apartment complexes because they don't either fit in a county's master plan or um they're zoned inappropriately.

Uh we have got to start prioritizing local contractors.

We have to stop giving tax breaks to organizations like invest up who then turn around and make affordable housing or workforce housing unaffordable.

Um in the last 16 years this has been an issue and we talk about it every election season.

People get elected and then nothing is done and then it comes up and it be it's talked about again.

I'm the person to get it done.

Dave Prestin, do you see a role for the state uh to address the the myriad of the housing issues that we have?

100%.

I think uh first, how would you pay for that?

I don't know that really requires paying for a lot of this.

We need to get out of the way.

um with energy optimization and the infiltration of the environmental lobby into that.

We're looking at building codes that are talking about adding sprinklers to single family homes, triple pane window requirements, specialized installation, specialized doors, windows.

This all increases the cost of construction exponentially.

And you know, we are putting ourselves in this state in a situation where the state is the problem.

It's not the solution.

So, first off, we need regulatory reform on home building, on construction codes, and and to get realistic that if we want to solve a problem that we've got to first recognize the fact that us as the government are in the way and if we allow the private sector to do their job um and put in the safeguards that are required um but not stop anywhere close to that.

I mean, one of one of the people that I've talked to in my lobbyist said, "Well, you know, X, Y, and Z have a 30-year payback."

Well, I hate to tell you, mom and dad and and the single family at home doesn't have 30 years to wait for that payback.

And Sara Cambensy, just curious in terms of do you see a role for the state in addressing these housing issues and what would that be?

Absolutely.

The city of Marquette when I was on the city commission uh kind of led the way into a partnership where we actually saved the old orphanage uh looked at a very small 10-year window of um property tax breaks and we brought in MISTA so our Michigan housing uh authority and they put up the money.

The tax breaks gave the developer the incentive to actually invest in this and work for it.

And at the end, we had guaranteed low-income housing.

Much better than just throwing a chunk of money at a developer and saying, "Make it work."

And by the way, when you get done, um, you know, $3,000 a month is not affordable housing.

The other great thing that's going on, I think our local zoning has done a great job of being a lot more flexible and our local land banks um here in Marquette County has amazing projects going on where they see duplexes as an entrylevel way for young families to actually buy into the housing market, buy into it, but also you're now a landlord that can rent half of it.

And so I think we have to look at models like that that can actually open up accessibility.

um and look at our our state MISDA to actually help control those those housing rent costs.

Thank you.

Uh next topic, data centers.

It will be asked by Nicole Walton of Public Radio90.

Uh data centers are certainly a hot button topic right now.

Some say they're needed for the evolution of digital infrastructure and AI needs.

Others say they use too much energy and water and negatively affect the environment.

Where hour, 8 minutesdo you stand, Mr.

Preston, on data centers?

I don't think that there's any way to stop them.

I ne not necessarily a proponent, but I think it's it's inevitable.

Um they're coming.

Uh you know, the public continues to use them.

More and more rely on them.

Industry continues to use them and rely on them.

But in the end, you know, when you're looking at at 250 megawatts of of energy generation destruction in the UP, we don't have the electrons to barely keep our lights on.

Um we're we're barely keeping um the mine and and Marquette up and running.

We're suffering from some of the highest energy rates in the upper peninsula.

We don't have the transmission capacity.

So what do data centers require?

They require an abundance of electrons and they require transmission capacity and transmission lines that they can interconnect with.

The UP doesn't have any of that.

Um th this this misguided fear of data centers in the UP really perplexes me because all of the the infrastructure and capacity that's required for them, we have none of it.

Um and we're a decade away or more from having it right now.

We've got the founder of Robin Hood and SpaceX talking about launching a significant quantity of data centers into space to run off of solar.

Where are data centers going to be in 10 years or 15 years?

I have a feeling they're going to be somewhere else.

And Sara Cambensy, how do you feel about data centers?

No, I think the most important right that our local communities have is that local control.

And they control their zoning in terms of what comes in and what doesn't come in.

And so I think the state really did a disservice to our local communities when they passed the enterprise data center sales and use tax exemption.

um because this opened up the floodgates for all these companies to come in and just pick away at our little communities who were in no way prepared um with their zoning ordinances.

So, we need to protect um the zoning enabling act and remain uh give our communities to remain that power, but you know, the use tax exemption on the sales tax 3.3 billion just for one data center.

So, 33% goes to our K12 schools, 66 goes to the general fund.

every fire department in Michigan could have had at least one if not two new fire trucks just by that tax revenue alone that we we didn't want.

And the last thing I want to bring up, government needs to slow this down and ask what are these used for.

If it's surveillance, I can tell you I don't agree with that.

If it's digital currency, don't agree with that either.

We have to get the community to buy in and tell us what they want, not legislators just going and, you know, filling the filling their pockets or or doing what these large corporations want.

And Kelli van Ginhoven, how do you feel about data centers?

Just say no to data centers.

Um, I would advocate and vote for a statewide moratorum for at least 12 months on all data center construction permitting.

Uh hour, 11 minutesI would then uh instruct the counties, townships, and cities to create very uh heavily restricted ordinances.

Uh yubers across the aisle do not want data centers.

Both Republicans and uh Democrats that I've spoken with.

A closed loop system uses more energy.

An openloop loop system uses more water.

There's no long-term studies of what it has uh what will be done to the people and to the nature and our wildlife living around it.

and I'm not willing to risk it for short-term profits.

Uh studies have shown that once the Copperwood uh mine, if it comes to fruition, will lead to data centers.

And if we think we don't have the energy in place for it, multi-billion dollar corporations like Oracle, if you don't think they're going to come in and build their own infrastructure to be able to get to our Great Lakes and steal our water from our native tribes and our UP residents, uh you got to stop pulling the p the wool over your eyes.

Thank you.

Uh we're going to move on to uh challenges in our corrections system.

Uh that question will be asked by Brady Meyer of Sara Cambensy.

Sarah up prisons including Marquette branch prison, Alger Correctional Facility, Ber Correctional Facility continue to rank at the top of the state uh in terms of off correctional officer vacancy rates.

What do you think is behind that and what can the state do to try to reverse that trend?

You know, Michigan was one of three states to completely dismantle their public pension systems.

And you know, these came with a very modest uh retirement income and you know, some of them, not all, but healthcare.

And so when you ask people to do some of the most uh hard jobs, the the ones that nobody really wants to take, like being a corrections officer, and you give them really no reason to stick around, I think the turnover rate is high.

Um I think throwing money at it isn't fixing it.

I think if you want people to stay and invest as employees into that system, you have to give them the reason and the benefits.

And again, extremely disappointed that both the Republicans and Democrats, the governor, um really left our corrections officers uh you know, kind of looming and in the weeds and not solving their problem on a cry for help.

Um both both sides actually work to dismantle the legislation, not send it to the governor's desk.

And I hear it all the time in every community I go to.

Why did they do this for the corrections officers?

So, we need to get um the public pension system back in and Thank you, sir.

Yeah.

Kelly, what do you think the state can realistically do to try to bring these correctional officer vacancy rates down?

Oh, I think they can do a lot.

Uh first of all, we need to have a a change in the education requirement.

Uh the MDOC requires 15 credit hours over uh two years if they already don't have those 15 credit hours.

However, those are impossible to achieve when they're being hour, 14 minutesmandated endless overtime.

So, those corrections officers work very hard for two years.

They show up, they do their job in dangerous situations, and if they don't have their 15 credit hours, they're canned and that is wrong.

So, I would definitely do away with that.

Uh we have seen that the most recent legislation gave a high increase to our Michigan State Police Force, but nothing was given to our MDOC, and that is a travesty.

uh these people are working in the most dangerous uh situations.

Their starting wage is 28.43 an hour.

That is severely underfunded.

I believe we can do better for our corrections officers.

And this is another issue that comes up in every election and we say we're going to fix it and it doesn't get fixed and I'm going to fix it.

And Dave, what do you think is the cause of these high off correction officer vacancy rates?

This is not a career that you can do for your entire life.

It takes a little bit of each shift takes a little bit of your humanity away.

Um and the sit and the hour, 15 minutessituation that they're in under the leadership of Heidi Washington cannot be allowed to continue.

The Senate just passed um the bills to reinstate the pension system.

And the current UP delegation, myself, the senator, uh Rep.

Bonac and and Rep.

Markin and uh have called upon the house to bring up these bills to finally pass them and put them before the governor.

On top of that, corrections officers in Michigan start off at just over $20 an hour and cap out at just over $33 an hour.

When you look at their federal and even Wisconsin counterparts, they're starting out at that $30 range and capping out at 50 to 60. wages, benefits, and a realistic view on what being a corrections offer entails is what's necessary.

Being a paramedic through co I know what it's like to be faced forced into 16- hour shifts repeatedly over and over again.

It just it it starts to just suck the life out of you.

It's an unsustainable path that our corrections officers have been on for over a decade.

hour, 16 minutesThank you, Dave.

Our final question pertains to the UP team down in Lansing.

that will be asked by Walt Lindela of Kelli van Ginhoven.

In the past, lawmakers elected to represent the Upper Peninsula have reached across the political aisle to form coalitions that have been intended to increase the strength of the voice of the Upper Peninsula in the political process.

How will you work with your fellow elected UP colleagues to ensure that Upper Michigan has a unified voice?

Well, I'm working really hard to form strong team uh a strong team coalition here in the upper peninsula with my Democratic uh House uh candidates.

Brian Yari in the 110, Anna Aho Rink in the 109, Rachel Keys in the 108, and Melissa Parent in the 107.

However, I understand that if elected, those might be the Republican leadership as well.

I have worked very hard as a Delta County Commissioner to be able to reach across the aisle and speak to my Republican counterparts.

Uh, I always shake people's hands.

I say, "Let's have those difficult conversations."

Because in the end, what is going on in our UP isn't Republican or Democrat issues.

They're Yuper issues.

I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat and you have to travel an hour and a half to get to an ER or two hours to deliver your baby.

These are UP issues that need real up solutions.

I'm always willing to have a conversation and I'm never willing to to not talk about it.

Okay, let's ask the same question of Dave Prestin.

How would you work, especially if you were to reach across the aisle to build those coalitions to have a unified UP voice?

My track record speaks for itself.

All of the legislation that I've worked on, I've reached across the aisle and have gotten bipartisan support.

When you're looking at the rice bills, 83 votes to 26.

My adaptive care lensure um that allows paramedics to work at a higher level of service 103 to1.

My PA lensure compact 103-3.

Um stop the bleed 98 to1.

Meno bridge key facility designation 92 to8 bow hunter self-defense allowing bow hunters to carry carry a sidearm while bow hunting.

um 90 to13 uh utility rightway to put transmission next along uh limited access highways 98 to zero and ending warrantless DNR searches 63 to 37 I have a track record of reaching across the aisle I don't believe in this partisanship I don't engage in it nor will I continue to in the Senate and Sarah Kimbenzi how would you work across the aisle to get a UP unified voice you know I think one of the best comments they still here to this day is they loved how well I worked together whether it was Senator McBroom, uh Senator Schmidt, uh or the rest of the EP delegation and having served three terms in the minority, um all of my accomplishments, anything I got done was because I had to work with the other side.

You know, when you run for office, um you are there's an expectation that you kind of turn in your individual voting card to your party.

And I think that's the biggest reason I'm running right now as an independent is that it nothing's getting done.

I mean, legislation, good legislation is sitting there because both sides are trying to convince all of you out there that the other party is the problem.

It's not the problem.

We need to get people in that can actually get achievements done, work together, not throw mud, not look at every chance to dig into other people.

We've never been like that in the UP.

And I think, you know, one thing I've noticed going around the entire UP outside of my old district is people recognize and remember me from working that way.

And I, like I said, it's the best compliment because it knows that I'm actually working for the people and doing what they want.

Candidates, that concludes the uh questioning uh portion of this forum.

We have just enough time left for each of you to give one minute closing statements again as to why uh voters should send you to Lansing as our state representative.

Dave Prestin, we begin with you.

I'd like to thank everyone who helped bring this forum together and the people watching both here and at home.

My wife Kathy and I have made our home in Cedar River.

We've raised our daughter Maddie here in the Upper Peninsula where she continues her education at Michigan Tech.

This is where our roots are and this is where our future is that we're fighting for.

I've spent my life serving the UP as a small business owner, a firefighter, a licensed paramedic, a county commissioner, and for the last four years as your state representative.

I've always put the UP first.

I don't answer to downstate interests.

I answer to you.

In the state senate, I'll keep fighting to bring new opportunities to our region and and a commitment to lower the cost of energy housing that have hit our families the hardest.

a steadfast promise to protect the essential services such as EMS and fire that we can't afford to lose.

We need a strong UP first representative in Lansing who understands our challenges and has the record to tackle them.

On November 3rd, I respectfully ask for your vote.

Thank you, Dave.

Uh Sara Cambensy, your last statement.

Thank you.

I would like to thank you guys for also putting on this forum today, giving us a voice and a chance to reach out to voters we might not normally have the chance to talk to.

When government in the two-party system doesn't work, it's not us as politicians that get hurt.

It's the everyday people who work harder, work longer, pay more, and they're getting less.

Both parties care more about power right now, and they're constantly blaming the other side instead of doing what's what's right for the taxpayers.

Both parties want you to believe that their party is going to fix it.

And the money flowing into elections proves that.

After serving in office in Lansancy, I'm convinced that the only way to fix this is truly be that independent voice and have someone that works only for the people and not a party.

Some people's hearts bleed red and some might bleed blue, but mine is always blood for the UP.

and I'm asking for your vote on November 3rd to be your next up state senator.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah.

Kelli van Ginhoven, your final statement.

Yes.

I'd like to thank uh the staff who organized this event today, ENMU, for hosting us and my fellow candidates for joining me on stage.

Uh over the last 15 months, I've been crisscrossing our UP.

I've put 30,000 miles on my car.

I've put a new set of tires on my car, multiple oil changes, and it's because I wanted to be able to get to every corner of our UP and talk to as many residents as possible.

I know what they need from me when I get to Lansing.

This campaign is about rebuilding what makes us strong.

Our accessibility to health care, housing, the growth of our middle class, fighting for our public schools hour, 23 minutesand teachers, and our commitment to protecting our land and water.

I am an anti-establishment zero corporate pack dollars grassrootsf funded campaign that has never wavered.

I'm a normal person running to res represent the hardworking UP citizens.

I won't be bought by special interest groups, big energy or insurance corporation insurance corporations.

It's my job to ensure that our fair share of tax dollars make it home.

Thank you, Kelly.

Uh candidates, thank you all of you.

That concludes our candidate forum.

Before we wrap, I do want to remind everyone that your vote could be the difference maker in the November 3rd election.

But to vote, you need to be registered.

For more information on registration, your voting options and locations, and the contests and candidates on your ballot, go online to the Michigan Voter Information Center at mi.gov/vote.

You can also check out the League of Women Voters election information page at vote411.org.

Again, my thanks to the candidates, the journalists, and our studio audience.

I am Mike Settles.

Thank you for tuning in.

Now, please do your part and vote.

[applause] [music] Production funding for media.

Media meet is provided by the Ray and Peg Hirvonen Foundation.