We're back now with the speaker of the House, Matt Hall.

Thanks for doing the overtime, sir.

We'll let Jordyn I wanted to follow up on a question that I had asked or a part of a question I had asked earlier regarding ... Energy committee no longer having any bills.

Why does it no longer have any bills?

Well, you know, I think that you have to look at the work Brian BeGole's doing and he's doing a great job as government operations chair, and he really doesn't get enough credit.

I mean, we're moving so many bills through that committee.

Yeah.

Now, I'll tell you one thing.

What the consensus now you ask anybody, your energy bill is going way up because of that Democrat energy law that they passed last year.

You know, they used to be the Democrats and and the utilities and others would say, your rates are not going up.

It is now the consensus position.

Many people think your energy bill is going to double.

Yeah.

And so I think Brian BeGole is going to do a great job analyzing some of those energy bills and helping us get to a solution.

And when he has a bill, you have to be on guard because it means it's either moving really fast, it's not moving at all, or it's a legitimate government operation.

And I like the lobbyist guessing which one of those three it is, because really they should work a little.

Harder reading between the lines there, though, it sounds like the Energy Committee will not be getting any more bills this term.

Well, we'll see what happens.

But right now, government operations is really been our horse and that committee has been very active.

And Brian BeGole has been doing a great job.

You sort of mentioned the government operations is for items that by the design of the speaker deserve special attention.

What was breaking down in the Energy committee that required that that action?

Well, I think, you know, you see the wind and solar credits going away and that really presents a need to rewrite this energy law.

So we were looking at something doing this anyway for when we have a new governor.

But but the fact that now the wind and solar credits are going away, you're not going to be able to shove all these windmills and solar panels that were needed in order to ban fossil fuels by 2040 under Governor Whitmer's new energy law.

So I see a real urgency to start working on this because, you know, Democrats and Republicans and this is something you guys don't give me credit for, but we carried that legislation on the data centers.

Republicans, if Joe Tate put that up in a minority of his caucus, voted for it, it was Republicans that helped him get that done.

Now, Rajeev Puri would have tanked it.

He would have voted no.

But Republicans have helped Joe Tate get several bills done when they aligned with our platform.

But because of AI and because of a lot of these data centers that are coming in as a result of that legislation, there's going to be a lot of pressure on our energy system and our grid.

That's why it's so helpful that President Trump is keeping that coal plant open in Ottawa County.

He's working to get Palisades funded and permitted, and he's helping us with line five, expediting the permitting on that.

But we're going to have to rewrite this energy law because we need an affordable and reliable energy grid.

And, Brian BeGole right now is is taking a look at those energy bills.

Mr. Speaker, we did a survey, Mr. Speaker, with our readers at MIRS who are lobbyists and association executives, we got 100 responses and more than 80% of them said that you were at least in part, a reason why we don't have a budget agreement right now.

What did you make when you saw those results?

Well, I also received the highest approval rating from your subscribers of anyone that's a leader in state government.

My approval rating as reported in WW J is higher than Gretchen Whitmer's because of this survey you did also much higher than Winnie Brinks or Ranjeev Puri and I believe Ranjeev Puri at 31% had the lowest approval rating in the history of the MIRS survey.

So it's kind of like at the national level, people are critical of Donald Trump.

But if you look at the federal Democrats, they are they are significantly more unpopular than Donald Trump.

And then you look at this new guy in New York who is running for mayor, he's even more unpopular and he's emerging as a leader in the Ranjeev Puri wing of the Democrat Party.

So what we have playing out in Michigan is kind of a civil war between that more moderate Democrat Party that wants to work with President Trump, led by Governor Whitmer and this extreme left Democrat Party, led by Puri.

And what what I'm looking for are a handful of House Democrats that will stand up to the radical left that will support their governor, reach their hand across the aisle and work with us.

And I'm interested to see now that Joe Tate has dropped out of the U.S. Senate race, maybe he can be that leader.

He can be the leader because a lot of these Democrats saying to me, we made a mistake electing Ranjeev Puri.

We should have brought back Tate.

Now that Tate's there, there's an opportunity for him to become a leader again.

But to answer your question, you know, I looked at it and, you know, as you know, when the survey first came out, you couldn't even pick Winnie Brinks as an option.

Well, we changed that and then we recalculated it.

So anybody who voted in that survey could pick Winnie Brinks.

But the ones that would have voted before and then their vote got canceled out, wouldn't know to go back.

So I looked at it and I looked at it, said the survey came out and you couldn't even pick Winnie Brinks.

So we just said, okay, you know, it is what it is.

So you're discounting that 80% of the people who follow state government are blaming you for the shutdown.

Well, I don't think 80% are blaming me.

That's not what it said.

But but I'm just saying, when we saw it, it was pretty interesting because when it first came out, you couldn't even vote for Winnie Brinks.

And I think most people see Winnie Brinks on an island, because, you know, time after time after time, whether it was in the Oval Office working together, whether it was at Selfridge standing with President Trump or time and time again when Governor Whitmer said, I'm the only legislative leader that has the guts and the brains to put a Rhodes Plan on the table and pass it through the chamber.

You're seeing Governor Whitmer and myself aligned.

You're seeing Winnie Brinks on an island.

That's why I'd be pretty worried if I were her about that.

The Senate special election this.

A little game I played with the governor.

So it'll be fair.

She's a Democrat.

You're a Republican.

Just some yes or no answers to these questions?

I don't know.

No.

Yes or no?

Not "I don't know."

Capital punishment, yea or nay?

Well, President Trump has endorsed that in some cases like people that kill cops.

And I agree with President Trump.

Repealed Daylight Savings time.

You know, that's an interesting one.

I've been supportive of some of the bills we've seen in the past, like the one Michele Hoitenga had.

Do you favor a ban on getting rid of absentee voting?

No.

Did you read the governor's book?

No.

You know, she did offer to send me a copy, though.

So I'm I'm looking forward to getting it when she sends it.

Yeah.

Should the governor have the power to appoint the state board of Education and university boards?

I think in the case of the State Board of Education or excuse me, in the case of the State Board of Education, the governor should have the power to appoint the director of education.

So the the cabinet head.

But not the board.

Correct.

Okay.

And... the voters should pick the boards.

Do you support abolishing the property tax?

No.

And do you think the governor is running for president?

No.

No.

And just to expand real quick on the property tax, you know, we have some great caucus members, people like Jim de Santa and Steve Carra, who have really been doing a lot of work on the property tax issue.

I've been having great conversations with them.

And and I think they're right that we need to do something about property tax, you know, whether that is a legislative vote or maybe us attempting to put something on the ballot that looks at a proposal A and Headlee and tries to kind of modify those so that, you know, we can make property taxes more affordable, prevent some of these large increases in property tax that many homeowners face.

And also, I would say address we we need to properly fund education in local governments.

That's Why you can't get rid of the property tax because how would you fund local governments and education?

But I do think we need to look at it.

What can we do legislatively and what could we put before the voters in the future to address that?

Because of Biden's inflation, property tax is now becoming the number one issue.

To do that for the 2026 election.

I once we get through this budget on September 30th, then I think our next focus is going to be how do we tackle this issue At that time?

I'll have a good read on whether that's something we could pull together for this election, but we're definitely considering it and it's just, you know, let's get through the September 30th budget and then that's the next issue that I think's going to dominate this town is how do we do property tax and the potential of putting that on the next ballot if we can't do it all legislatively, What.

Would you modify about the Headlee Amendment?

Well, I think one of the challenges that we see so I think Hadley Hadley in particular, does a very good job of restricting the growth of state government to inflation.

But one of the challenges we see is that when somebody sells their home and in in this the step up increase.

Of tax.

And so states like Florida have eliminated that.

And so I've tasked our team and our members to go look at this and say, hey, what are some things we could do to ensure that the intent of Headlee and the intent of Proposal A to cap property taxes?

You know, some states will look at, hey, senior citizens pay a reduced rate.

So we're looking at all those options and we want to put something forward in the legislature and potentially on the ballot that would help give people property tax relief.

But, you know, that's really going to happen after we get the state budget, not one more.

And then I got to get him out of here.

I mean, I guess I'll just for the last and the second ago, you mentioned things that you agreed with President Trump on.

Is there anything that the president is doing currently that you disagree with?

And if so, what is it?

No, no, no, not nothing.

No.

I think he's doing a fantastic job.

I've been a supporter of his since early 2015.

I'm not a big fan of Clara Hendrickson at the Free Press.

But if you read her story she just wrote, she points out, you know, I was the person that was negotiating a lot of the key assignments at the convention in 2016 to ensure that President Trump secured the nomination and secured Michigan's delegates.

I've been with him the whole time.

I just want to say one thing about some of the comments in the beginning segment.

This is my observation.

I'm grateful that Governor Whitmer is showing leadership and working with President Trump.

I was there in her first term.

In his first term, it was challenging for someone like me, who is a true Trump supporter, that had the connections on the inside to get things done because our governor was fighting with President Trump.

This term is so much easier to get things done with Governor Whitmer embracing and saying positive things and talking to President Trump and building that rapport.

But I will say one thing So far, the only things that we've seen her be successful on are things where there's 100% alignment between the House Republicans, some of our Republicans in Congress and Governor Whitmer.

So when I went to the Oval Office with Governor Whitmer at the president's team's request, the three things we found consensus on were the Selfridge Air National Guard Base, the Asian carp issue, and the Northern Michigan Relief.

And those are the three things she got done.

So what I found is we're successful when we get our ducks in a row, and Governor Whitmer and I are in alignment.

We go to President Trump.

She is such an asset and ally in helping get things done.

But I don't think it's fair to report that Governor Whitmer is doing it alone.

It's really the partnership of Republicans and Democrats.

And I'm grateful.

You know, those were some big moments for our state where we got some things done and there's more to come.

Mr. Speaker, thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Tim.

Always good to see you.