Brad Paquette, R, represents the 78th District, which covers Berrien County and parts of Cass County. 

I firmly believe that the best policy ideas come from listening and talking to everyone in southwest Michigan. Last week, I introduced a bill that came from one of those conversations. The bill idea came from a conversation I had with the father of one of my former students. He works for a local manufacturer, and they have been busy, so the workers have been asked to work overtime. He was explaining to me how helpful the overtime hours have been in helping their family catch up on bills, but that it would be nice if he would have been able to keep more of his paycheck and not lose so much in taxes.

That conversation stuck with me, so I worked with the Legislative Service Bureau (the nonpartisan lawyers who work with legislators to translate bill ideas into the right legal language) to write a bill that would exempt overtime wages from the state’s income tax. I believe workers should be able to keep more of their hard-earned wages in their own pockets rather than sending it to Lansing. The bill is House Bill 5099, and if you are interested in checking the status of it as it moves through the legislative process, you can do so by visiting legislature.mi.gov.

I genuinely enjoy the conversations I have with constituents, and I hope you will join me for my next coffee hours on Oct. 19. They will start at 10 a.m. I will be at the New Buffalo Township Library at 33 N. Thompson Street in New Buffalo, and at noon I will be at The Rage, 219 N. Front St. in Niles. I look forward to our conversations and discussing what bill ideas we can work on together.

If my office can ever be of assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are there to serve you. We can be reached by calling (517) 373-1796 or emailing BradPaquette@house.mi.gov. Please know that myself and my office are always available to be of service for the good of our community.