WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The WRFH Interview: State Rep. Jennifer Wortz, 03/11/26

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Michigan State Rep. Jennifer Wortz joins WRFH's Sophia Mandt to discuss recent severe storms, data centers, and more. From 03/11/26.

You're listening to Sophia Mant interview Michigan State Representative Jennifer Warts on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. She represents the 35th District in Lansing, covering most of Hillsdale and Branch counties. You represent Union City, where a devastating tornado struck late last week. What can you tell us about the damage and recovery efforts? Yeah, well, it has been very devastating. in the Union City area. I was over there Saturday and Sunday, and then drove through last night just to see how cleanup efforts are going.

Pretty much everybody's back in there on their own personal property now, working to recover what they can and then begin to clean up. Obviously, with this weather that we're having today, that's been last night that's really going to be summer. month restrictive. And so, unfortunately, a lot of things are a total loss over there. And, you know, for people who have insurance, that will be helpful. But we are hearing stories of individuals who locked everything with no insurance. Additional to that is just a fact of the amount of extra time that the county sheriff's department and our emergency response team has put in.

And, you know, some of those things, you budget for a certain amount of disaster, but you don't budget in an annual budget usually for this amount of disaster. So today I have a meeting trying to work on some options with getting some additional funding through to that area from the state. That area was also to the south of their hit with tornadoes almost two years ago

in the Sherwood area and they've still received no funds to help with cleanup. But I will say Samaritan's purse is in the area. You can sign up online if you want to volunteer.

They are a great organization first started by Billy Graham and they are training people and through rivers and then deploying them to Union City to volunteer for a day or multiple days. And so that would be my recommendation at this point in time to reach out through their website and sign up there to get involved. Or you could also call the Branch County Sheriff's Department Victim Service Unit

and find out about ways that you can. want to volunteer or the American Red Cross to give financially. We're just hopeful that those people can recover and rebuild their homes in that community. Thank you. You have introduced a bill that would temporarily halt the construction of data centers in the state. Why are local communities so concerned about data centers? Well, a couple of the biggest concerns around data centers is that the amount of power that they take to function. If we look at the Saline Data Center that's been approved after a court ruled against the township in that community,

it's 1,400 megawatts of power. and that's the equivalency to the city of Detroit or about a million homes. And my argument has been in this case, I'm not against data centers. I understand with the advancement of technology that we have to have them. But where is that power coming from and how is it going to affect all of us as ratepayers? And in that case, DTE has made a pledge in good faith that they will incur. all the expense of the power and infrastructure and the data center will be responsible for that. But there's nothing in statute that says that.

And so I'm actually working on additional legislation because I'm not sure that the moratorium is going to go anywhere other than I am encouraged to see that a lot of local townships are putting moratoriums in for right now until they review and write their own ordinances regarding data centers. So I would encourage townships locally to do the same. And then we will continue to work at the state level on ensuring that where data centers are going, that it's not on open fields. I'd like to see them go on brownfields, existing locations that have already once been used for something else and that could be repurposed for a data center. And then they're in places where the infrastructures are, there, the water that's needed, the energy that's needed, and that these large corporations

bringing them in are going to be responsible for paying for all of those things. One concern raised is the energy demand these facilities create. How big of an issue is Michigan's power capacity right now? Yeah, well, it's a huge issue. If you look at any of the reports that came out after we had that really cold spell back in January, northern Michigan, was being faced with rolling blackouts. And part of the issue is that when in 2023, the Democratic trifecta passed PA 233 and its associate acts around green energy, you know, they were supposed to power down the coal facilities in our state.

And if you do that in northern Michigan, those people cannot get power during the coldest part of the year. And so that's why President Trump ordered that that coal plant remain open. And, yeah, consumers is having to reinvest in that facility. But the reality is this green energy mandate is not affordable or sustainable for Michigan. And my concern, again, back to the data centers, is that for these companies to get the tax incentives that the legislature passed in the last cycle, 90% of their power has to come from green energy or renewable energy sources. So that continues to be an issue that I foresee with this is that they're going to continue to go after.

They're going to continue to go after acquisition of farm ground to meet that requirement for the green energy. And so that means more solar, more wind, more battery storage facilities, have to come into play if they're going to meet that demand of that 90% of their power be sourced renewably. And so we have to fix that. And we have bills that are being introduced this week in the legislature on the House side. But unfortunately, you know, I don't know that the Democrats and the Senate or the governor are willing to reverse course on bad policy that they passed in 2023.

We are listening to Sophia Mant interview Michigan State Representative Jennifer Warts on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. She represents the 35th district in Lansing, covering most of Hillsdale and Branch counties. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she would veto any legislative efforts to block data center development. Do you think there is any chance that this legislation might somehow get past the governor? Well, obviously, like I said, not probably the moratorium bill that I introduced unless we start to see major issues with these or an inundation. Unfortunately, I think the governor is only looking at these from a financial standpoint. You know, she wants to leave office with a legacy of growth in Michigan. Unfortunately, if we look at the track record, a lot of money has been thrown at development of locations in such.

to brewing industry into Michigan that has just not happened. So that's where, again, I'm encouraging local townships to create their own ordinances or moratoriums for now until they create a policy and a guidance for what they want in their own communities. A lot of our townships in our area are not zoned. And, you know, I respect that from the, standpoint of limited government.

But what we're facing right now is a situation where with the requirement of green energy and now the push for data centers, that townships really need to get in front of this and they need to set Creos, which are certified renewable energy ordinances and work with good legal counsel to ensure that they maintain, if they want their township to be a rural community and township, then they need to maintain the zoning for that. And so that's really where I think, I don't think we can rely on the governor to probably reverse course on bad policy that she's been championing for the last several years. Two of our local state senators have joined an effort to repeal Michigan's newly instituted 24% wholesale marijuana tax. If the bill makes it to the House, would you continue supporting it?

Has legalization been a net positive for the 35th district? Well, again, while I respect my senator colleague, Senator Lindsay and Senator Bellino, I think this is somewhat, I understand the reason and they did it is to reverse and bring back. There's some concern that there's going to be revenue lost, especially in our border counties, which they represent because of this change and the implementation of the tax, the cost to purchase marijuana here in Michigan now is really equal to what it is in other states like Illinois and Ohio that have legalized marijuana as well. I would vote against that bill. And again, from a financial standpoint, I understand where they're coming from.

and there may be a loss of revenue in our communities. But when I look at all the other side effects that have occurred, especially when I look at Coldwater, between Coldwater and Quincy, we have about 20 marijuana grow facilities. I mean, sale facilities. I just can't support that. and the issues that it's brought to our community with crime, where with an influx of traffic and accidents.

And so, no, I'm good with the tax that we passed last year. Governor Whitmer's recent budget plan also calls for a temporary back-to-school sales tax holiday on certain supplies. Does that spur spending or just shift when the spending occurs? Yeah, these are interesting proposals. You know, I guess it's a, it's a feel-good idea if we have a tax-free weekend to buy school supplies. But the reality is, if we had better policies by the governor in the last nearly eight years that she's been in office, we wouldn't need to just have a tax break on a weekend. We could have lower taxes overall.

You know, going back to why did we have to tax marijuana? Well, because we needed to create a revenue source to fix our roads. And the governor in her tenure in office has grown the state budget by 40% and reduced tax burden to individuals. very little other than what we passed in last year's budget and no tax on social security tips and overtime. But that was pushed through the Michigan House Republicans. And so if we had not grown our budget and blew through our savings, then we wouldn't be just picking winners and losers when it comes to tax breaks. We'd actually be lowering taxes for everyone. And that's where I think that's where we're going to be working again on this budget this year in the Michigan House

is bringing tax reform and relief to all Michigan residents and continuing to cut back on state spending. Democratic candidate Jocelyn Benson has proposed spending billions to bring high-speed rail lines across Michigan. We've seen this fail in California. Is there any reason to believe it would succeed here? No. This is, again, one of the dumbest ideas I think I've heard of recent years. And yeah, I just was listening to Mike Rose podcast on failed California policies. And it seems like our Michigan leadership in the Democrat Party seems to look at California as their big brother. And oh, let's try that. It's failed in California. Why on earth would we think that that would we think that that would. be a smart idea to try here. And we are a, you know, when we go across the state of Michigan, we can go from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron and three to four hours depending on where you're at by car. And we've continued to work to invest again in the infrastructure of our roads to make that

safe to do so. And we've got a lot more work to do on our roads. So why would we spend millions, if not billions of dollars to invest and rail across the state that just seems like a complete waste of money. Thank you. This has been Sophia Mant, interviewing Michigan State Representative Jennifer Warts. She represents the 35th District in Lansing, covering most of Hillsdale and Branch counties. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.