Dear Friends,

Hello! Thank you for subscribing to my E-newsletter. I am honored to serve the 36th senate district and look forward to working with you toward a better future for Michigan!

This e-newsletter serves to keep you updated on what is happening in Lansing and what I am doing as your state senator. I hope that you will find this e-newsletter helpful, and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. Or if you are in Lansing, please feel free to stop by my office at 920 Farnum Building.

Jim Stamas
State Senator
36th District of Michigan

The last few weeks I have been visiting our district, attending meetings, events and festivals. I love getting up to northern Michigan, and am proud to serve you!

This past Saturday I attended the AuGres Battle of the Bay and Polar Splash Festival. I had a wonderful time watching the snowmobile drag races and meeting locals. Thank you John Stanley, President of the AuGres Area Chamber of Commerce, for the tour and a big thank you to all the sponsors that helped put on this great event.


This past Saturday I also attended Perchville USA in beautiful Tawas, Michigan! Perchville USA is a huge festival that takes place every year; this year was its 65th! Congratulations to Jolene Grusecki and Tim Haskin as this year's queen and king.

Free publications for you and your family

Last week, two of my northern Michigan staffers toured the district, dropping off over 9,000 booklets to the local County offices, city offices, libraries and chambers of commerce. The booklets delivered ranged from information for seniors, veterans and older adults, to children's coloring books and guides to understanding state government. The list of booklets, as well as an electronic version of each, can be found on my website at: http://www.senatorjimstamas.com/publications/

Free Tax Publications!

Tax season is upon us! To make the job easier, please find some valuable resource information to help you with your taxes this season!

Michigan Taxpayers Guide for 2015 http://www.misenategop.com/Publications/2015-TaxGuide.pdf

This link will take you to a helpful online booklet for the 2014 tax year on Michigan property taxes, homestead property tax credits, farmland and open space tax relief, the home heating credit program, and individual income taxes. This information may ease the burden of filling out state tax forms and may even save some taxpayers money. However, this information is not designed to provide line-by-line instructions for filling out state income tax forms. That information is provided by the Michigan Department of Treasury in the income tax instruction booklets that include tax forms.

Appealing your Property Tax

Do you think your property tax assessment is incorrect? If so, you may appeal the assessment. This link will take you to a page designed to help you through this process

Jobless rate falls to lowest point in 12 years!

Michigan's unemployment rate declined to 6.3 percent in December, the lowest monthly rate since November 2002. The decline represents a full two-point drop from December 2013.

State officials also noted that Michigan's labor market was particularly strong in the second half of 2014. I look forward to building on this good news and working to keep the momentum going. Bringing more jobs to our area remains one of my top priorities.

New laws promote patient health

Few things are as important as the health and well-being of our loved ones. Legislation recently signed into law will:
 

• Better protect patrons from severe life-threatening allergic reactions by expanding restaurant food safety training to include allergen awareness (Senate Bill 730).
• Provide women with important information by requiring a patient to be notified when her mammogram shows dense breast tissue, a common occurrence but one that could make it more difficult to detect cancer (Senate Bill 879).
• Support the direct primary care model, providing Michigan residents the option to contract directly with health care providers for routine health care services (Senate Bill 1033).

May 5th Road Funding Ballot Proposal

My office has been receiving many letters and phone calls regarding the May 5th ballot proposal for increased sales tax to help pay for our deteriorating infrastructure. In order to provide some clarification to what is coming in May, please read a summary of what a support vote for the ballot proposal will accomplish.

Read more.


Free Fishing Weekend

Why not make it a special Valentine's Day weekend and head for the great outdoors? Michigan's annual Winter Free Fishing Weekend falls on February 14-15 this year.

All fishing license fees are waived for the two days. Residents and out-of-state visitors can enjoy fishing on both inland and Great Lakes waters for all species of fish. All fishing regulations will still apply. Visit www.michigan.gov/freefishing for more information, including details on special events.

My Committees

I am honored to have been selected to sit on the following committees in the Michigan Senate:

Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (Chair)
Michigan Competitiveness (Vice Chair)
Appropriations
 - Agriculture Appropriations Sub-Committee
 - General Government (Chair)
Economic Development and International Investment
Health Policy
Natural Resources, Environment and Great Lakes
Legislative Council


 

Office Hours

I will be holding office hours in each county throughout my tenure in the Michigan Senate. Office hours give me the chance to discuss state government issues with you personally. We have just moved into our new Senate office and are in the process of organizing our office hour schedule. Office hours will be publicized through the following media outlets: newspapers, radio, Facebook, the internet, and future e-newsletters.

Digital Picture Tour of the 36th District

We live in a very beautiful part of Michigan, and we are definitely proud of it! To show off our district, I am looking for photos to create a 36th district photo gallery. The photos will be published on my web-page, Facebook page, and in future e-newsletters. I look forward to receiving your photos! Please visit my webpage to view the photos already submitted.

Contact Me

Serving the constituents of the 36th Senate district is very important to me and I encourage you to contact me with any state issues. You may contact me by calling toll-free 1-855-347-8036 or emailing senjstamas@senate.michigan.gov. Also, please check out my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/senjstamas.

I look forward to serving you, and I encourage you to contact me if I can assist you in any way or if you have an idea to help move our state forward.

State Government Resources
Michigan's Beautiful 36th Senate District - The Sunrise Side
Office Hours
My Staff
Contact Me

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Thank you for subscribing to my electronic newsletter! I am honored to represent you in the 36th Senate District of Michigan.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Please feel free to forward this on to others who may be interested in receiving the 36th District E-news. You may sign up for it also at my website or via Facebook.