WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The WRFH Interview: State Sen. Joe Bellino, 09/10/26

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

Michigan State Sen. Joe Bellino, who represents the state's 16th Senate District, joins Ariel McDowell of WRFH for a conversation. From 09/10/26.

Hello and welcome. This is Ariel McDowell on WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM joined today by State Senator Joseph Alino, who represents the 16th Legislative District, including much of Hillsdale County. Thank you so much, Senator, for interviewing with me today. Well, thanks for calling. Thanks for reaching out. And always happy to do it. Awesome. Thank you. You recently introduced Senate Bill 952, which is seeking to improve. special education training for teachers and increase overall transparency, empowering families with kids who have needs in the special education world, and it allows families to file confidential complaints. Could you list some specific changes that the bill introduces? Well, I introduced the bill because many parents reached out. We know that kids in special education are a little bit different, and that's fine. We still want to educate them, and we know

there can be behavior issues. We've known that for years. But when there are behavior issues and things happen, I believe, and so the parents believe, that they should be notified that day and that school should be very transparent of what's happening. I know that sometimes they can't control what the kid does, what the kid says, what the kid throws, whatever, but the parents still should know. And that's what this bill is all about.

It hasn't. It's still in the process of getting passed. So do you think it seems like it wouldn't be unpopular or wouldn't be controversial or wouldn't be controversial. But what do you think it's life will look like? Do you think it has a pretty good chance? What are the next steps? That's hard to say. As you know, the Senate is controlled by Democrats, and they go by their own agenda. And in fact, today, we voted on all the bills that were transferred, that weren't transferred after the last session. And the court said, you got to, you got to transfer them. You got to, these have got to be laws now. It's got to go to the governor. They forgot to do it.

somehow the Democratic House did not give the bills to the Democratic governor, and then they wanted a Republican House to give them to the governor, and we didn't, and there was a big lawsuit going on. So finally, Speaker Hall said, okay, take it. And the Supreme Court said they had to go to the governor. The governor vetoed all those bills. Why did the governor veto those bills? Because it would have cost Michigan taxpayers millions and millions of dollars, and we're not sure how we could have paid for those.

So who knows what's going to happen with the Democratic Senate? I'm not in majority. I don't know what they do during the day to plan their days. I know they're all worried about their next election. So I'm not really sure. I would hope it would come out this fall before November or maybe in lame duck so we could discuss it. But right now I've gotten no answers from the leaders of the committee if they're going to hear it or not. Gotcha.

Well, we can hope for some success soon. You proposed a bill in 2024 in honor of Deputy William Butler, who, and the bill passed successfully. And this year you voted for a piece of legislation that was almost identical that would honor Monroe County Sheriff Deputy Darian Young designating a portion of Highway M50 in her name. It's so important to honor those who serve our communities.

What inspired this recent piece of legislation? I was curious because the one honoring Butler was so soon after his death, whereas Young's passed in 2020. Here's what happened with Darien Young. She died. She worked for the last. the sheriff's department. She ran our whole canine, our whole, what do I call it? Humane Society, part of the deputies with animal control. She ran that, seven employees.

She was killed by a drunk driver on her way to work in the morning, early in the morning. So we brought it up right away when it happened. The Democrats did not want to recognize quote-unquote dog catcher. So it took us a few years to educate him and what that department does in Monroe, because it's different in all counties and response bill that she had. After a while, they finally realized, yes, we should do this. And to tell you the truth, there's been a lot of bad blood with road naming bills for the last eight years. In the old days, we only named roads after fallen soldiers or fallen deputies or policemen or firemen.

But then the Democrats decided they wanted to name part of I-94 for Aretha Franklin. And we put up a fight on that. So it caused a big problem for a few years. So that's what happened to Darien. It got caught up with A, they thought she was a dog catcher. And B, they were still mad at us for not taking Aretha Franklin right away when they wanted to. So they let it sit for a long time. I had to talk with a Senator Kleinfeld, a friend of mine a few times.

And she wanted to pass it, but her leadership wouldn't let her. But at the end, a deal was made with Speaker Hall on my behalf to get it pushed through because it went through the House and to get it pushed through the Senate and the governor signed it. It took a few years and it's sad, but that's what happens in politics sometimes. With Deputy Butler, it was completely different. He was assassinated by a bad guy. In fact, my staff and I, through some funds, paid for the sign. Now, when this happens, you've got to pay MDOT to put the sign up, to make it and put it up.

It's $2,500. We paid for that long before we passed the bill, but we had it. ready to go, and then when the bill was passed, the sign was put up. Well, it's a great piece of legislation, nonetheless. I want to pivot a little bit and just get some of your thoughts on the upcoming November election so that folks know what to watch for over the coming months. They're going to see two main initiatives on their ballot automatically every 16 years in Michigan.

There's a proposal that the state constitution be revised. what is your opinion on whether Mr. Gander should vote yes or no? And if yes, what are the changes you would find important? I know opponents point out would be a very expensive initiative. Well, it's not been talked about much that initiative for the every 16 years. It was voted down the last couple times. I'm assuming with nobody spending money on this, that'll probably voted down again because it's scary to open up the Constitution. But if I did it, I would make some changes with the way we run government to make sure that we have brick walls between the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Governor, and the Legislature. Right now, we've seen

the last eight years with Governor, with Governor Whitmer, that sometimes these walls aren't there. And there's lots of things going on back and forth that probably shouldn't happen. And I'm, sure that happens sometimes when the Republicans were in control. So I would put strict walls up to isolate items and make sure that. that AG's not working with the Secretary State on things. They talk about these walls they put up, but there's no way in the world they do it. They're making deals in the backside.

And I would make sure that everybody in Michigan has a voice. Right now, some people think they don't have a voice. They don't speak up, and maybe they don't have a voice today. I've got a voice because I was a loaded. I had a voice before because I never shut up. I was in the college board. I talked to the newspapers all the time. I talk to politicians all the time.

voice. And luckily in Michigan, one thing we don't have to change, like the federal government, is that we have to have a balanced budget every year. One of the greatest things we did where the new constitution in the 60s was having a balanced budget every year. I wish the federal government would open back up and let us do that. That would be perfect. Yes. Other than that, there's not a lot that I would want change because I'm afraid if we opened up, if the wrong people are control and the wrong people take control, stupid things can happen. And I'll give you an idea of why I think that. We voted on an independent redistricting commission. Sounds good, doesn't it? Sounds great. No more gerrymandering. Look at the way that the districts look now.

And look at the makeup of the redistricting commission. Right after they all got done, the guy who led the whole redistricting commission accepted a job from a far left nonprofit that was lobbying for their maps, a nonprofit that does not hire people in the middle of the road. And this guy was on the Redisdring Commission as a independent. And he accepted a job on a far-left extreme nonprofit. That guy wasn't independent. He was swaying the whole commission. So we got, we got duped in that one. It was not an independent redistricting commission. It was a left-wing Democratic independent redistricting commission. And the people of Michigan got screwed on that. I would hope if we open up the Constitution, that same thing would not happen because look what happened. The Redistering Commission,

there were Democrats got the maps they wanted, and they got the outcome they wanted the first time. We got them last time. But having that person in control of running that commission who was supposed to be an independent, who accepted a job for over $200,000 a year from a nonprofit, that's a left-wing nonprofit that was lobbying the Registering Commission shows us he wasn't independent and it was a big lie. And I hope that wouldn't happen when we open the Constitution up. Right, would be a risky venture. Yeah. The other initiative that Michiganers will decide on this coming November would forbid campaign contributions from regulated electric and gas utilities and government contractors who reach a certain threshold and people adjacent to them.

It passed in the House, but the Senate didn't act on it, which is why it's on the ballot. What is your opinion on this initiative? Well, I think the federal government told us years ago that they have a voice. but somehow these people think they wrote this initiative, so it goes around the federal governments, the Supreme Court's actions. I don't like it, and here's why I don't like it. They did not include unions.

And I'm sorry, unions are a corporation. You may not think it, but they're a corporation that does what the leaders of the corporation want to do. And I'll give you an example. In Michigan last year, the unions gave away, or the last election cycle gave away, more money than the divorces and the Meyer family combined. Wow.

But they gave 99.6% to Democrats. When I asked the people that put this together, why don't you put the unions in? They look at me like I'm an idiot because they're liberals. They want the union money going to Democrats. They know that corporate and they know that Democrats hate big business. They hate small business. I've seen this the last six years, the legislature. We've had so many votes that hurt small business.

big business, it's incredible. Now, why is that? If the governor said early on, I want to grow the population of Michigan, how are you going to do it without jobs? And yet, when you see the actions of the legislature, the Democratic-controlled legislature, and the Democrats right now, they hate all business. Here's how screwed up at it is sometime in the legislature.

We're in a committee a few weeks ago to vote on a bill that would give consumers and T&T and all the energy companies a 15 foot right away to trim around lines and poles. Because we know that 80% of the outages are caused by down lines and poles and trees and limbs in my own house. For the second time in six years, I lost power for over four days. Why? Because three trees came down and took out two poles and a lot of lines.

And it was only a couple hundred people out. So we're near the bottom of the list to get fixed. So when the Democrat, so we're in this committee with this bill, and a Democrat stood up and gave a speech on, we can't cut trees down. We can't do this. Don't tell me you want better service from your electric company and then tell me you can't cut the trees down.

And you know why? You know what she said? Many of these trees were here before the white man. We can't cut them down. This is the crazy stuff I see in Lansing every day today. And most of the stuff that Democrats want to do is so far left is incredible. So she stands up and says,

we want to penalize DTE. We want to penalize consumers, but don't cut the trees down that cause most of the problems. Don't do that. Let's do it another way. What is the other way? The trees and limbs cause most of the problems. Why can't we trim the trees? Oh, I know why.

They were here before the white man. This is what I put up with the Lansing. It's crazy stuff. So I'm against this. I do think there should be rains on it. I do think maybe more transparency of what they do. And the Democrats are mad because corporations and all business, small and large, give 60% of the money to Republicans and 40% to Democrats.

Why do they give more to Republicans? We are pro-business. Just look at what happened the last six years. All the bills that passed and tried to get passed. They were anti-business bills. The governor told us, let's grow the population. You can't do it without jobs. But if you're anti-business, you have no jobs.

So it's a quagmar. And I don't trust who put this together and want to put it on the ballot. And I don't trust the Secretary of State. She took hundreds of days to certify or look at what was happening about the only Michigan citizens, only United States citizens voting. She took, she slow walked that for months and months and months and months and then pulled out a thousand people that signed it. We have no idea where they pulled them out from.

There's no transparency on that. And then they found out there were three short. even though during the law, during all the committee and the law stuff going on, we showed them affidavit signed by those people and they could have got penalized in the court of law. If they lied, they signed and said, that is my signature.

I did sign that. They wouldn't look at it. They wouldn't take it. It's such a travesty for the people of Michigan that they warrant illegals to vote. They'll tell you they don't do it. Then they tell you it doesn't have an office. And now they say, we don't want only citizens voting.

What does that tell you? That tells you the fix is in. The fix is in. They want some of those 15 million people that got over the border during Biden's day to vote. And they wanted to vote for them. Wow. That makes sense.

I thank you for that answer. That's really helpful in terms of understanding the actual intention behind that initiative. This November, you will also be running for re-election. You're probably, you have a pretty strong advantage as the incumbent. and it's a heavily Republican area. And your opponent is Dandra Barnes. What differences between you and your opponent are the most important for Michiganders

to be paying attention to? What are the main things you would spend the next few years working towards? Well, I'm going to work on keeping taxes down. And at first thing we'll do if we take over the governorship is, you know what we might be do we're going to do? We're going to call back all the workers that have been on hybrid or working from home since COVID.

We now have facts. They're not going to die if they come into work in 2026. Let's bring them back to work. That's number one. Number two, we're going to go after all the departments that are slow walking, all these permits. I have a big problem in Monroe. I live right near Lake Erie, and we've been putting new dikes up. We started in 2014, 2015, putting new dikes up in the areas to protect it when the water's high.

Well, a new regime came in. the new regime after when they took full control a couple years ago said you can't build those dikes anymore because you're destroying the bottom of the lake so now we have a couple miles of shoreline that needs new dikes for the last two years because we're almost done with a project and the state has said you can't build a dike they don't care about people that live there they get flooded again they don't really care about it we built dikes long six miles but they won't let the last two miles go because the new regime took over to the department this is the department you using their powers, discretionary powers, and screwing Michigan citizens.

And every department's been doing things like this, because Governor Whitmer will not pull the reins in where there are crazy people that run the departments. So when John James takes over, he's getting rid of all the department heads, bringing his own people in, and we're going to do what Snyder did. Snyder put a GM in charge of the departments so the departments could talk to each other, and we could get permits done together simultaneously and move along these projects. Here's a perfect example. Six years ago, Ford said, we're going to build a battery plant in Kentucky without telling anybody in Michigan.

Through the governor off, through the legislature off, no one knew anything about it. You know what it ended here told me a couple weeks later after they did this? We went to Kentucky, not just because it's going to be a little bit cheaper, but because we can build that plan before Michigan gets through all the regulatory approvals. And that's a disgrace. Nobody wants to come to Michigan and build anything because it takes so long to get Eagle involved, to get MDOT involved, to get all these departments involved and get it done. Why can't they do their stuff simultaneously, all their testing, all their paperwork simultaneously and get it done together? That's what Ohio does. That's what Indiana does. And look who's eating our lunch right now with jobs and building infrastructure, Ohio and Indiana.

We're going to change that from the get-go when we take over in November. and that's the biggest thing. If we can improve the regulatory climate in Michigan, we really don't have to lower taxes for business. We don't do the law. They will come. They will come and build. The last question I want to ask you,

just as we wrap up, is tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of 9-11. And as our country remembers the tragedy and honors the brave men and women that were heroes on that day, what are some of the most important things young people learning about 9-11 and remembering it should walk away with?

Are there political or personal lessons that you think it should teach us? Well, what they should do is really not listen to that Piker guy from California, who's been hanging out with Mr. El-Sayed running for Senate. Because he says, we deserve that. I'm sorry. I went to Israel in January. I saw what they go through.

I went and visited down near the Gaza Strip where they assassinated and murdered and raped and brutally treated all these kids that they end up killing at the end. they took videos of this. This is what we're up against. In the world, in the last 25 years, there have been lots of bombings, lots of murders, and if you listed Democrats still tell you, oh, the biggest threat to America today is right-wing extremist.

No, it's not. It's a Muslim extremist. They want all the Jewish people dead, and then they come for all the infidels, which is me and you and everybody else in America that doesn't think like they do. So I want people to remember. they did this because they hate us.

They will not stop this until we're all dead. And if you don't believe that, look at history. Look at what's been happening since the last 5,000 years. We've been chasing the Jews all over the world. We all hate it. We want to get rid of them. Hitler couldn't do it. Elfayette wants to do it.

All these other people, they want the Jewish people going. And when the Jewish people are gone, they're coming for the rest of the infidels. Look what's happening in France. Look what's happening in England. Look what happened in France a few years ago with that newspaper. They were writing articles about what's happening with the jihadist in France, and they came in and they killed the guys. I want kids to remember that we were founded on Christian principles.

We became a great country, the greatest in the world, because of Christian principles. We don't want the extreme Muslim principles running this country. Because if we do, the country's gone. So the people that were involved in 9-11, that instigated it, that planned it, and the people that are already dead, they already planned it. They want us all gone. And I want kids to know, if we let our guard down, they're coming after us. And so many kids today, they're all excited about voting for El Cyan. Why?

Why? Oh, Medicare for all, college for all, this for all. He hasn't told you what Medicare for all will cost. eight to $15 trillion. I'm not on Medicare yet. I paid in. I'm still paying in. I'm 68 years old.

I'm not on it yet. I will be on it someday. But I earned to get it, get on it because I paid into it. The people I work for paid into it. I want you to remember that America was founded on Christian principles designed to make it, that designed so that when you work hard and you pray and to take care of people,

good things happen to you. That's the America I love. That's the America that I want to have moving forward. Senator, thank you so much for joining me. This has been Ariel McDowell with state Senator Joseph Bolino, who represents the 16th legislative district, including much of Hillsdale County on WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.