WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The WRFH Interview: State Sen. Joe Bellino, 03/26/26

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

Michigan State Sen. Joe Bellino joins WRFH's Malia Looke for a conversation. From 03/26/26

Hello and welcome. This is Malia Look 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. Thank you very much. Absolutely. So two weeks ago, you were one of five state Republicans to vote against a bill package, which would move state primary elections to make. May instead of August starting in 2028. Why did you vote against it? And what are some potential consequences that you think could happen now that it has passed? I didn't like the fact that it didn't take away an early voting day. So Republicans have been working hard to get rid of a spring voting day that school districts use to pass millages. People forget about it. It's not a presidential election or a state election. And so it's an oddball data.

do it and this would give them that day in this it wouldn't get rid of that day in the spring even though we moved the primary if it wouldn't get rid of that day in the spring for the schools and i think that's BS that we have an election for school villages mainly or maybe municipal villages too in the spring when hardly anybody votes if you look at the percentage of people to vote in those school villages in the early spring or late winter it's very low and so schools do that on purpose so they can get their people out there to vote on it and pass these millages And since he didn't get rid of that early voting day, I was against it. All right.

Why do you think are some reasons that some of your fellow Republicans did vote for it then? Well, we need to move the primary up. That's a fact. But we don't need that extra voting day in the spring, which tends to throw us all a curveball if we're not used to it. So it's never advertised a lot. They get out to vote for the school villages is better than to get out the nobles. vote and it's real quiet. It's kind of like special elections. Look at the percentage of Republicans that vote in special elections. It's a lot lower than Democrats. It's because we're not used to it.

So give me the November election for all the millages and all the state senator and state rep and presidential and governor races. And I could take that. But get rid of that early day that schools use for millages to get them passed because I think it's BS that they're pulling that on us. If schools were so intent and happy about their villages and knowing they would pass, put them in November. But no, they don't do that. Do you think, as you said a second ago, that it's going to have a negative effect on Republican turnout if we put the primaries and such on an earlier date? No, I think we'll be fine with the primary early date because it'll all be together. In fact, if you remember a few years ago, Republicans used to meet in August.

to pick out who was going to run for AG and Secretary of State. Well, we moved that up. That is now this weekend. It was way too late. The Democrats had their candidate for two or three months. They were advertising. We didn't have anybody yet, and we couldn't spend a lot of money on it. So now ours is this weekend.

I believe the Democrats nominated convention is next weekend, I think. But it's real soon. So ours is this weekend at the Novi Center, and there'll be about almost 3,000 delegates there to pick out. are candidates for Secretary of State and Attorney General. All right. So the Michigan House recently voted in favor of a ban to stop the production and sale of, I believe it's Cratton and Michigan.

First, what is it? And for people who haven't heard of it. It's like a synthetic high. It's not a registered drug. It's another substance, but kids use it to get high. kind of like kids use the substance inside of whipping cream to get high. I forget what we call that. Gee, many crickets, they're huffing this stuff.

Nitrous oxide, which we put in whipped cream for bakeries and stuff. It's kind of the same thing. And a lot of unscrupulous retailers are selling this stuff. It's not good for kids. And when it gets to the Senate, I will vote to get rid of it. I will vote tomorrow to get rid of it. The Democrats didn't want to do that. They wanted to do it in a phase and give people warnings and stuff.

No, no, no, no. Let's get rid of it. Unscrupulous retailers sell this product to make a lot of money and it screws up our kids. And that's why I'm against it. Yeah, I saw a few articles that we're calling it gas station heroin. Yeah. I do have a question about that, though, because a few weeks ago we talked about the a marijuana bill that you proposed that we renew or sorry remove the taxes on and while you said

you were against it, you said that since it was here, it has created a lot of jobs and wealth in Michigan, but you are against this craton. Is there a difference between those two? Yes. There's a big difference because A, they're not at checking ID at these gas stations when they sell this crate of stuff. B, we do with marijuana. There's stringent rules. We follow the marijuana from seed, right to sale. I'm, you know, as I told you earlier, I voted no on the marijuana bill years ago on the ballot. I'm an addict in recovery. But since it got here, and I embraced it and my district embraced it and I had over a thousand workers on December 31st. I have less now because of the 24% tax that are putting on the wholesale. But credit them is a little bit different. They're not checking

ID and they're selling it to anybody. Kind of like what they were doing with those little canisters of nitrous oxide, Detroit. All of these gas stations were selling that stuff to miners, and they were huffing it and getting high on it and killing brain cells. And they didn't care because they were making money on it. Now, I believe that we should be entrepreneurs and work to make money in legal ways. But doing things on the gray market like this is bad. As you know, I was a retailer for almost 25 years. I didn't sell this crap. And I wish everybody else wouldn't, but people, the almighty dollar makes people do stupid things. Right. And I do know that there's some Democrat pushback on it who will say that this would just create a black market for Creighton. Do you think that that's

something that would happen? Or do you think, you know, there's just legal alternatives? No. Now, there won't be a black market for this because basically, you could probably buy black market marijuana cheaper than this, still get high on it. I don't believe the Democrats' excuse on the black market at all. I think they just had a lot of retailers who are friends didn't want them to vote on it. And that's why they voted the way they did. But I would vote tomorrow to ban this stuff and get it off the market. You're listening to WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM. I'm Malia Look, interviewing Michigan State Senator Joseph Bolino. Michigan's economic development board has approved roughly $50 million of taxpayer dollars to pay for infrastructure projects supporting dairy plan expansions for Fair Life and Jabani operations in West Michigan.

Officials say that money will help create several hundred jobs. Do you think that is a smart use of taxpayer dollars? Well, the only way it could be a smart use of taxpayer dollars is B, or A, if they do hire all the people they say they're going to. B, if we can claw back the money, if they don't hire people, that's why I don't like these kind of handouts. I would be in favor for the economic development people to give money away for everybody you hire after they're on the payroll three years. Or check this out. You hire them and you collect all the taxes like everybody's legal, and we will give you back part of your taxes while they're employed for five years, the new hires.

That's a sure way of showing that they did hire, but they were going to hire, and they kept them on the payroll. Because some of these people use a card game shuffle. They'll say, oh, I hired 172. Well, you may have hired 172, but a year later, you laid off 124. Right. So we get screwed in the end. So I'm against just giving handouts like that.

I know Fair Life is growing, and they make a lot of good products over there, and the sewer lines weren't big enough, and the water lines weren't big enough to help them out. But I would like to see guarantees on jobs for at least three years, and if they don't, then we claw back the money. Members of the Michigan legislature appear to have reached a deal that would allow an estimated 8,000 doctors to continue practicing medicine across the state by renewing Michigan's participation. in the interstate medical licensing, licensure compact. Why did this fight take so long to resolve? It was a political fight because in the House, it was the under name of a rep named Jamie or probably Riley Lenting.

And she won a tight race two years ago against a real liberal lady and Downriver of Windat. So she won that race, a real tight race, and one of the tightest ones in the state. So the Democrats did not want to give her. a public act. And on the Senate side, it was in Roger Hauke's name. And Roger Haukes in a safe seat. So they wanted to give it to Roger Hout, not Riley Lenting. So that was what the fight was all about. And the deal was made because there was a bill for Kevin Hurtell.

A senator in a very vulnerable seat, a Democrat in northeast Detroit and the St. Clair's area. The House didn't want to give him a PA because we're going to be him this next time and have a Republican senator in that area. that area. So what they did was made a deal. We'll give you the Democratic bill in the House. We'll give her a different kind of bill in the Senate. And they made a deal and they tied by the they passed it. Now, what's ironic is that we did this for doctors, but we won't do this for nurses. And you know why? Because the nurses union does not want it. And so I don't think that's fair. The nurses union don't want it. So Democrats won't let it happen with nurses, but we do it with doctors. So tell me how fair is that?

Why doesn't the nurse union want it? The nurse union does not want nurses from other states coming in and taking their jobs. They may be non-union from Indiana or somewhere in Ohio, and they want union jobs in there. That's what it's all about. Interesting. So we don't have a nursing contract. We do with Canada. So every day, in fact, when I gave my kid the away a couple years ago, all my nurses were from Canada.

They come over the morning, they work their 10-hour shift. and they go home. It's okay for us to do it with Canada. And they told me there were 4,000 nurses that come over every day to Detroit for the hospitals to work. But we won't do it for Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin because we're afraid we'll put unionized nurses out of business, which is BS because we need nurses. Right. Okay. Yeah. Georgia recently became the first state to temporarily suspend its gas tax for drivers filling up at the... the palms. With prices over $4 a gallon now in Michigan, will there be a push to do the same thing here, you think? Yeah, there's some talk about that. But remember, we made a change on the gas

tax last year with that deal with the House Speaker and the governor and the Democratic Senate majority. We took away, we took all the sales tax on gas and put it to roads instead of in the general fund. And then we backfilled that with more of a tax to make it kind of even. Now, the way it sits. If gas is 325 or less in Michigan, then we're paying up more of a tax. But if it's 325 or more, there's less 6% sales tax on that, then the other one is stagnant per gallon. So we're actually saving money right now from the sales tax. But I would be in favor of any relief for people driving right now. But I think the rise in gas prices is going to be temporary. I think by the middle of the summer, it'll be back down into the low threes or high twos like it was before.

279, 269. I think this Iranian thing I'll be over with. We'll get the Straits of Hormuz open, and people will quit being frightened by that. And what really throws me a curveball on the gas prices is that America gets less than 7% of their oil from the Straits of Hormuz. So why did our taxes go up 50%, 60%, 70%,

that's beyond me. I think that's big oil just screwing us over, but that's just my opinion. You're listening to WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Malia Look interviewing Michigan State Senator Joseph Bolino. So after the attack on the West Bloomfield Synagogue, the Senate unanimously passed a bill which would strengthen the state's anti-terrorism law. What's new about this bill and what are some effects it could have on how the state prosecutes suspected terrorists? Well, it's obvious in America and in Michigan that people like to treat the Jewish nation, the Jewish people as second-class citizens.

And I see that in the Senate Democrats. It's a real split. We have Jeremy Moss, who is Jewish, and we have six or seven people who want to free Palestine and kill everybody from the river to the sea. I feel for the people in West Bloomfield, you might not know this, but I took a trip to Israel last year. and the Israeli people are wonderful people. And I know they live in a tough neighborhood and they have to have different rules for people traveling around there because if they don't, then they know they'll get more and more Israelis killed every day

because there are people surrounding Israel that all they want to do is kill everybody, and wipe them all out. And when you get done with there, then they want to wipe out all the Americans. And if you don't believe that, just watch what's been going on the last five years in America.

You haven't seen many Jewish people going out in killing people. Have you? You haven't seen many Italians, but we've seen a lot of Arabs out there just killing people left and yelling, Allah Akbar, whatever, they're yelling while they're doing this. It's a tragedy. I don't believe, though, that we should punish people more for the same crime. Murder is murder. And if you murder someone, you get a penalty, and that's it. And there shouldn't be more of a penalty if you murder a woman, or if you murder somebody of color, or if you're a Jewish person. It should be the same penalty all around. I don't think we as Americans,

should just vote to justify that since you murdered a minority, we should punish you more. I think that's totally wrong. Let's punish people the way the law says, and let's enforce that and not be like Washington County or Wayne County that you have to have like, you have to have like 27 crimes and four murderers even to put your foot in jail. I mean, they'll let people out left and right for rapes and all kinds of stuff, which is incredible. That does not happen in Monroe, Leniway, or Hillsdale. We're tough on crime. But in some of those counties, they're not.

So I don't really believe we should punish people more for the same crime, no matter who they are, ethnicity or color. Yeah. This bill in particular, which is, you know, supposed to strengthen the anti-terrorism laws, is it more of a statement of support or is it, does it bring, like, more strict? Yeah, would you say that the bill that was passed is more of a statement of support or is it? Yeah, I think the bill was passed for just a statement of showing solidarity and, you know, showing what we love and don't love. But, you know, like I said earlier, I don't want to pass laws that say if you murdered a Jewish person, you're getting eight years.

and if you murder me, half Italian, half American hillbilly, you're getting 50 years. That's not what I want in America. It should be the same penalty for everybody. So there's really nothing new about it? No, nothing new. No teeth behind it. Just a statement of support, yes. All right.

Well, to kind of wrap things up, what do you think is the biggest issue in Lansing that you think lawmakers aren't paying attention to? Well, we're not paying attention to what's going on in schools. And Democrats aren't paying attention to ways that we can help schools. Every time we've passed a school bill in the last 40 years, unless the MEEA likes it, the Dems vote no. And I'm sorry, but the MEEA has brought nothing to the table to help schools in Michigan. And that's just how I feel. I've seen it happen. I've seen great teachers let go of schools because they're the low person on the totem pole.

They don't want to get rid of somebody with 35 years. And we should have the best people in this classroom. The second thing is it's affordability. The governor wants to raise taxes and wants to raise fees. Well, I'm sorry. There's plenty of money there to pay all our bills and do what we need to do. All we got to do is make a few cuts in the areas where we can easily make cuts. But no, the governor wants to hire a thousand more workers.

The governor wants to raise fees. She wants to take almost a billion dollars out of the rainy day fund. And I'm going to fight that tooth and nail. And so will the people at the Republican House, we're going to fight that tooth and nail because there's enough money in the pot to do everything we need to do in Michigan. When I was elected, I think my first budget was $57 billion. And this one's $83, $84 billion. There's way too much money floating around.

And we can make these simple cuts or simple reductions and pay all our bills and do what we need for the people of Michigan. And one of the big things we need to do is quit taking a billion. bucks on an average every year out of the K-12 budget and giving it to Michigan State and Wayne State and the other big schools. That's total BS. We've been doing it for years. All I've been hearing from superintendents and teachers is that Republicans ruined education. Well, when you had to trifecta with the Democrats running everything, you still took $2 billion out of the fund, the K-12 fund, and gave it to big colleges, which is ridiculous, especially what they're giving us today. You know, we gave Michigan last year. We gave Michigan last

because we love the University of Michigan as a state, an extra $500 million. Hillsdale could have used some of that money. Schools and Lenoway could have used some of that money. Right. My small, hurting districts in Middle County could use some of that money. And here's another thing the governor did. There's a fund of money out there called 31AA, and it's money for schools to apply to fortify their districts,

like a lot of schools have done already, and for mental health. Well, in order to get that money, you've got to sign an agreement that if a situation happens at your school, let's say somebody has a baseball bat and breaks eight noses of students or breaks five arms of different students, the board has to give up their attorney-client privilege. Now, where is it written in the Constitution that we have attorney-client privilege unless something crazy happens at your school? But this is what the governor wants, because she made a deal with the AG of the head law officer of Oakland County. who's running for Attorney General as a Democrat, made a deal with her.

And now Monroe Public Schools, the biggest public school in my whole district is out $650,000 next year because they refused to do that. And almost 200 schools in Michigan have refused to get this money because they can give up attorney-client privilege if something happens at their schools. It's called principal. We shouldn't have to give up our rights because something bad happens at our school. But the governor made this deal with the devil, and we're sitting with it right now. and that's one thing I will push to change in this chamber session. All right. Well, thank you again for your time.

This has been Malia Look with Michigan State Senator Joseph Polino, who represents the 16th legislative district, including much of Hillsdale County, on WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.