WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Hillsdale Interview: State Sen. Joe Bellino, 02/12/26

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Michigan State Sen. Joe Bellino joins WRFH's Malia Thibado with reaction to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's proposed budget, layoffs in Michgan, and more. From 02/12/26.

Hello and welcome. This is Malia Tibido on WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Joined today by State Senator Joseph Bolino, who represents the 16th Legislative District, including much of Hillsdale County out in Lansing. Thank you for joining, Senator. Well, thank you. Thanks for calling. Absolutely. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has proposed an 88.1 billion state budget plan. In 2019, the budget was less than $60 billion. How are we spending roughly $30 billion more in the state in just seven years?

Worse than that, when I was elected in 2016, took office in 2017. Our budget was about $55 billion. So in that short period of time, it's going up almost $30 billion, which a lot of it is Medicaid. that's a that's a huge portion of it but the other parts are we had so much more money coming in from the state that the governor just grew the budget when you look at different uh like last year speaker hall cut out 2000 what he calls phantom employee that's one of the department has like a thousand extra employees on their budget that they can't fill the positions but they want money for every year so a thousand employees on a budget is 10 million dollars and so they wanted it filled

every year, well, Speaker Hall cut that stuff, and there's more departments to go through with these kinds of cuts. So that we know that they were padding budgets. They were spending things furulously. The governor, I mean, there's a great story out there about the governor giving one of her friends, she got $20 million from the state. And for a nonprofit, she just started. Then she goes out and buys a $4,500 coffee maker for the office and it would be with a lot of

other money. So the governor didn't keep an eye on the money when it was going out. and we've had increases in health care, increases in school safety, increases in money for schools. That's most of it. But the rest of it, I think, is just waste, to tell you the truth. Well, speaking of schools, Whitmer wants to increase spending in schools across the state. You have previously responded by saying, quote, pumping more money into a failing system will not work. what might work instead of millions more in spending?

Well, let's get honest about the money for spending for schools. She's proposed an increase, but she's also proposed shifting $1.7 billion from the school aid fund, which constitutionally was supposed to be for K through 12, but they finagled with the courts years ago, and now it's K through four-year colleges. She's shifting $1.7 billion from the school aid fund to give the big colleges and community colleges. She shifted $1.3 billion last year. So that's $3 billion out of a school aid fund that could be used for schools and they needed it. But no, they're going to UMM and Michigan and Wayne State and MSU and other schools.

And to me, that's a crime. And if you ask any superintendent and any county in the state, they will tell you that's a crime. This money is supposed to be ours. Now, to go back to your question, we can do some things to improve school outcomes. money really hasn't been helping. But one thing we did last three weeks ago was we took a vote to ban cell phones from schools for students. The governor signed the bill this week. So starting next year, schools will have to have a policy where there's no cell phones in the class while they're learning.

My closest biggest district to me right here, Monroe Public Schools, implemented this January 1 this year. it has made such a big difference in the behavior and in the students how they react, how they're learning in the classroom. The teachers are so happy. The kids are more attentive. They're paying attention. They're talking now during lunch. Can you believe it?

They're talking during lunch. What a wonderful, what a novel concept that is. So that's one thing we can do. We can do things like put more money into literacy like we have in the past, but it's got to be different. I read a stat the other day that said, for every 20 students in Michigan, there are two administrators. Well, that's higher than almost every state and the nation except for Massachusetts. We are wasting money down to drain with overhead and not giving it to the students where they need it. We need more boots on the ground with great teachers making good money that want to go to work and want to make a difference.

We all have had a teacher in our life that made a big difference in our life. We need more of those teachers, give them more money, and let them make a difference. So the phone thing we can do is one great thing. Here's an idea I'd love to have. I'd love to have school year-round in Michigan. Go to school eight weeks, take two weeks off. Go to school eight weeks, take two weeks off. We won't have that brain drain we have in the summers right now.

Now that will cost a little bit of money because we'll have to air-condition the schools that aren't air-conditioned. But that's another thing we can do to improve the outcomes. And another thing we could do is, a lot of schools have already done this, get rid of that darn reading program we picked up 25 years ago that set us back in time 25 years ago you could hear any MEA member yelled that we don't want to be missus we don't want to be we want to make

more money we want to have better schools well you know what's happened in Mississippi they passed us big time in reading their top 10 in the nation out reading and we are 46 46 out of 50 and now Mississippi, who we didn't want to be 25 years ago, is now a top 10 school in reading. All the stats show if a child can't read by the end of third grade, he's got a bigger chance to going to prison, a huge, a lot better chance of never getting a good job in life and being a complete failure. We've got to teach these kids how to read. So we have to put more money toward that with better teachers.

And basically, we've got to hold parents accountable. We may do that Hillsdale and Ledaway, but most of the state does not hold parents accountable. The parents, a lot of schools, the only time you see the parent is they're upset because their child is unhappy. And they go to school screaming at people because their child's unhappy. Well, you know what, Mrs. Smith, why don't you keep quiet, read your kid when they're young, help them do their homework, and help them thrive in school instead of being mad at somebody because they're unhappy. So the parents are a huge problem, which we can't change. We can start putting little rules on the parents to start getting involved in kids' lives and reading and help them out with homework and things like that.

Do you think there might be an issue with that in assigning parents to do work in public school if the parent doesn't agree with the curriculum that's being taught there? Yeah, that could be a problem. but I read the history books in middle public schools, went through all of them, junior high to high school. The history is fine. The stuff they talk about is fine. I think there might have been one or two things I might have disagreed with with the books, but they were fine.

We need to teach the good part of history, the bad part, all of history. So if parents are mad about things like that, they need to think about what's best for their child in the future. Being upset about one class or one two-week period shouldn't change how you feel about why or when or where your kid should be educated, especially why. So, yeah, I know there's some parents out there that look for things to get mad at, but 90% aren't.

But that's not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is today in Michigan, 45% of our babies are born through Medicaid. Medicaid pays for it. That tells me it's a poor family. That tells me in the inner city It's probably a single mother without a father around The whole breakdown of the family Has been part of our whole school system falling apart

But I want to remind you They have the same stats in Mississippi With not having fathers around for families And they're reading their top 10 readers in a nation now Used to be the poorest state in the country It's now a top 10 reader We need to follow what they're doing And we need the MBA to fuck in and help out

here too. The MEA does not want to make any change in the education unless they get paid for it, unless they make more money, or what's in it for me? Well, you know what? If you look around the state, 20 years ago, the highest paid teachers in the state were from Detroit. That was the worst district in the state. Money did nothing in Detroit up there. So the MEA's got to step up and start helping us out here too. I am rather curious about the eight weeks on, two weeks off, idea you just proposed. Would that not be bad for, say, a student gets a summer job? I know that's something that a lot of kids in my high school did. We had like all day summer jobs and then we would work after school or on weekends during the school year. Is that not a way to balance

out like the income more? Yes, that's a way. But other districts, other states have your around school and the kids get through it and they get jobs and they live a good normal life. We could do this. The budget also continues funding for universal free school meals. Yeah, what a waste. Okay, so you don't think we can keep doing this or would you think about that one? I would get rid of it. I think it's $300 million a year for free school lunch for everybody.

I have relatives who are upper middle class who want free lunches for school for kids. You know why? Because it's more convenient for the mother. Well, I'm sorry. I'm a taxpayer. When we started paying taxes, we didn't tell people years ago. And oh, by the way, a portion of your taxes are going to go to upper middle class people. That's crap. We should not be paying for lunches for people who can afford it. I have no problem, and almost every Republican I know has no problem helping people in need. And that's where the lunches should be, people in need. Not for every Tom Dick and hairy mother and father who are too busy to make lunches or give their kids five bucks for lunch or whatever it is today to get lunch. I'm sorry, we should not be giving universal free lunches

to everybody, especially people of means. You're listening to WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Malia Tibido interviewing Michigan State Senator Joseph Bolino. I do want to touch on jobs. A new report by the Challenger says that Michigan had one of the highest numbers of layoffs and lowest numbers of jobs added in January recorded nationally. What do you think is causing this? And how do you think we can reverse this trend? Well, it's our policy set forth by the governor. Most of those layoffs you'll find out are because of the EV vehicles. The suppliers and the big three have made layoffs.

They got rid of programs. And when Ford says, or somebody says, like Ford, we're not going to make the E150 anymore. Well, there's 150 suppliers making parts for that truck. And it's not going to make the electric truck anymore where the suppliers don't, they won't need the suppliers. So they lay people off. So that's the biggest portion of it. And that all stems back, stems back to policies set forth by Democrats to save the world. So we have all these layoffs and EVs now.

And if you've looked the last four years, what the governor's done, she has signed a lot of bills. They're 100% pro-union, but not 100% pro-Michigan, pro-Michigan people. So if we have a state that has 19, 20% of union workers outside the public sector, why are we coddling union workers at the expense of everybody else in the state? Look around us. Look at the unemployment, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota. We are a lot higher than them. Why is that?

It's our policies. If we don't have policies to bring job providers in and tax policies to keep job providers here, instead of just doling out hundreds of millions and billions of dollars to bring people in, and then they leave five months later, we'll never be a good workforce in Michigan ever again. I was upset a few years ago when Ford left to build the big electric battery plants down in Kentucky for cars and trucks. I was upset. They'd said nothing to Michigan about before they did that. And they went down there, mainly for two reasons. It's a little less expensive to live down there. And B, it's quicker to permit stuff on there. Our policies on permitting in Michigan, as President Trump has talked about

federally, add too much money to the projects and add too much time to the projects. And here's an example. I live near the Lake Lake Erie. And Frenchtown Township has been building a dyke system to protect the communities for the last 15 years. Now they want to do the last mile and a half of dikes. All of a sudden, Eagle, people that are in charge and keeping a trick of our environment, are saying, no, you can't build a dike like that anymore like you did the last 15 years because you're hurting the lake bed. No, wait a minute.

Where were you the last 15 years while we were doing this kind of work? You said there was nothing wrong with it. We got stuff done. But now we have bureaucrats, unelected bureaucrats, telling Frenchtown Township, you have to build these dikes a different way, which will double the cost of building the dyke and give us no extra protection. So those types of policies set forth by bureaucrats that are unelected, and the governor has no checks and balances on it.

I'm sorry, she may say she does, but she doesn't. She has no checks and balances, so she lets these bureaucrats do what they want. Those are the things that add money to projects and keep job providers out of Michigan. Here's another thing we did last year. We voted, and I voted no, to, extend the period for unemployment and to give people more money. What would job providers think now when they can make, if they lay somebody off, they're going to save money in Indiana and lose money

in Michigan. They're going to go to Indiana when they lay people off now for their business. The policies set forth by the Democrats and the governor have been driving businesses away. All you got to do is look at our unemployment in Michigan. Related to the Michigan auto industry, I wanted to ask about the Gordi Howe Bridge that's supposed to be functioning as a border crossing. The Michigan governor is saying that with Trump's threats to keep it closed, that that is going to threaten the auto industry. How will this affect it in your mind and what will the response of the Michigan state Republicans as a whole be, do you think? Well, the governor, after now 14 months of President Trump being in office, hasn't figured them out yet.

And the Democrats haven't figured them out yet. The man's trying to negotiate the best deal for the United States. And here's the problem. When he was in office the first time, he got together with Mexico and Canada. They started USMCA, a trade agreement with the three countries. And I remind you that 77% of all trade Canada exports come to America. So keep that in the back of your head, 77%. So we set up the MCA.

Well, Biden gets an office and doesn't follow through some of the stuff that Trump negotiated in for America. It's not good for America, especially with dairy and other products, not car products. Car products flow back and forth with very little tariff. But there are other stuff that don't. So President Trump's kind of upset that the MCA was not put into effect the way he negotiated it almost eight years ago, probably six years ago now. So he wants that to go back the way it was. He has a hammer. The hammer is his signature.

Without his signature, that bridge does not open. So now Canada's got to come to the table and talk to us about the U.S.MCA that they signed years ago, the trade agreement, and make it whole the way they said they were going to make it. Here's one example. You go to a store in Canada today. It's hard to find American wine and American bourbon or Jack Daniels or any other liquors. Why? They're mad at us. But the U.S.MCA said that stuff should be able to flow back and forth with no paraphron.

and Canada's not not abiding by that. They've taken it up their shelves. They don't want it. So President Trump is using the bridge as a negotiation tactic. And here's a second example of how he does that. Do you think we wanted to buy Greenland and take over Greenland? Come on. The whole world got upset at President Trump when he said, we're going to annex Greenland.

Well, he said that because we need to put a missile defense system up there to save us from China and Russia. Because the bombs aren't going to come on the equator. they're going to come over the top of the earth. And we've got to stop that. So that's why he did say that about Greenland. And now we have an agreement with Greenland to put our bases up there. The president had to remind Greenland and Denmark and all of Europe that without us, they'd probably be speaking German right now.

I remember that remark. But they tend to forget that. We save their butts during World War II. And so they all get, they like the, they say bad things about us, but they forget the things we do for them. Right. So Canada has got to come to the table and make the U.S.MCA agreement that was signed years ago, make it whole, do what it said is going to do. And I'm sure President Trump will sign to let the bridge open up.

How do you think this is going to affect the auto industry in the meantime? In the meantime, they'll use the other bridge. I mean, they've been using that bridge since 1928, 29, whatever it was. Remember, when Governor Snyder came up this idea about another. crossing. We needed it for one main reason. It's hard to get trucks across the bridge through Detroit and through Windsor and to go where they got to go. When you get off the bridge in Windsor, you've got 11 or 12 streetlights before you get to the 401 highway. It's not good for a city. In fact, it cuts Windsor right in half, that truck traffic. And so we built a new bridge, a few miles

down. Snyder negotiated a great deal by Governor Snyder. And Canada built it because they know that we're the biggest trading partner, and they need another crossing besides Buffalo and the old bridge in Port Huron. So we built a new bridge. But the old bridge had some bad rules to it, too. There's a rule on the old bridge that says that any materials that could be caustic, like acid or gasoline, things like that, can't be brought across that bridge. But you know where it can be brought across? The bridge in Port Huron. So we have a lot of auto suppliers that take their trucks, go north toward Iran, cross the bridge with their asset or whatever they're doing, their paints, their things they're doing for the auto business, bring them back down to Detroit and then deliver them because we won't let them go across the ambassador bridge.

They'll be able to go across the new bridge, which is wonderful, but they can't go across the ambassador bridge because of rules. And this is the kind of stuff that we have to cut out. This is a rule that was pushed by Democrats and a wall put up with Democrats to not change that. rule because we tried to four years ago law they didn't want that stuff driving through Detroit after got off the bridge well they thought it was unsafe well I have a I have a real problem with thinking it's safer to drive 60 miles north cross a bridge then drive 60 miles back with that semi and call that safer I'm sorry that's like the governor saying we're going to shut down line five and bring all the propane over with with over the bridges over the

McAnnell bridge with semis well I'm sorry I think line five is going to be a a little bit safer than semis, 200 a day, going across the McAnall Bridge. I may be wrong. I may have no common sense in that, but I'm thinking it's safer to have a tunnel underground with the oil and the propane and stuff in it than bringing it across with semis. But that's how Democrats think. They don't want the tunnel underground or anywhere near the water because it might ruin the lake, but we're okay with putting semis across the McAnall Bridge, which to me just drives me nuts

with that thinking. So that same thinking happens with the bridge down south. If we can bring something across the Port Huron Bridge, the Blue Water Bridge, they call it, or the new Gordia How Bridge, why could we bring it across the Ambassador Bridge? It doesn't make any sense to me at all. The Ambassador Bridge, when it's open, will be a quicker route from Toronto down to Detroit or anywhere in America than any other bridge you have. And I can't wait for it to open because here in Monroe County, we've been getting ready for it. We've been setting up warehousing along I-75 so that companies can get their stuff over the border, warehouse it here, and then, send it out as they needed. So it's a good economic boom for my county. All right. Well, thank you

very much for being here, Senator. This has been Malia Tibido with Michigan State Senator Joseph Bolino, who represents the 16th legislative district, including much of Hillsdale County, on WRFH, Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.