Posted on April 30, 2025
Michigan State Rep. Greg Alexander discussed issues ranging from Social Security and Huron Lake water levels to the control of wind and solar energy sites during his Huron County office hours last week.
To start the conversation, Alexander shared his views on President Donald Trump’s administration and federal oversight.
“There’s a lot of scrutiny over the dead people that are getting Social Security checks and things of that nature,” Alexander said. “That should be the hot topic for Uncle Sam. There shouldn’t be people who are listed as 117 years old still receiving digital payments every month. A family’s not going to say anything about it because the federal government is dumb. It’ll just keep sending money.”
Later in the discussion, Alexander voiced support for Trump’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
“I actually say great, because that’s half of the bureaucracy,” he said. “The federal Department of Education was taking all the money for all the states and dividing it by 50. Their job is to fund our Michigan Education Association. So, they were taking this pool of money and skimming off of it for their administrative purposes, 8-20%. Then they pass it on to the state, and the state looks at all of our different schools, uses its formula for funding our local schools, and they skim money off of it too. Automatically eliminating half of the bureaucracy means we’re going to get more money locally, automatically.”
Alexander also discussed a long-standing issue facing cities, townships and villages around Huron County: low lake levels and their impact on local harbors.
He drew on his past experience as a drain commissioner to explain how dredging efforts used to be handled.
“When I was first elected drain commissioner in 2008, we were experiencing low levels back then,” he said. “In 2010 and 2012, it became an emergency where the Army Corps of Engineers jumped in and bypassed the DEQ for a lot of the regulatory harassment, and they dredged a bunch of harbors back then.”
Now the region is seeing lake levels fall again after a few warmer years. Accumulated sandbars have started to cause navigation issues across multiple harbors.
“The sandbars that have accumulated over the last 12 years are becoming an issue,” Alexander said. “We’ve got boats that are getting stuck trying to get out of the harbor, and that’s not exclusive to any one area.”
He added that new regulations now require sediment to be removed from the lake and placed on land, giving the DEQ oversight and creating logistical challenges.
“They’re telling us a 10,000-cubic-yard excavation has to be spread no thicker than 12 inches. If you do the math, you need more than six acres of upland area to handle that,” Alexander said.
He pointed to a dredging project in Caseville as an example of the rising cost of compliance.
“We piled it 20 feet thick on a 4-acre plot that we paid $9,000 an acre for,” he said. “The rules are changing, and we’re trying to navigate that. At some point, I think all the harbors are going to have an issue because the trend is still going down.”
Alexander also addressed renewable energy policy, specifically the siting of wind and solar farms. He criticized recent state legislation and said he’s pushing to return local control.
“People in many areas of the state, including in our region, are clear that they don’t want this type of development in their communities and feel these laws established the heavy hand of government directly into their lives,” Alexander said. “Local communities should have the final say on whether they want wind and solar sites within their borders. The Michigan Green New Deal that was imposed on local governments last session stripped locals of their authority to make such decisions and it amounted to a total lack of respect for the will of the people. I am working to rectify that wrong and bring this back to where the public has a say.”
House Bills 4027–28, which Alexander has proposed, have passed out of committee and are awaiting a second reading.
Alexander said he plans to hold more office hour events to make himself more accessible. The next office hour in Huron County is May 30 at 9 a.m. at the Huron County Memorial Airport.
Residents can contact Rep. Alexander at 517-373-1791 or GregAlexander@house.mi.gov.
