Waiting for a Response from State Rep Fox

State Representative Joseph Fox speaking at the recent dam meeting in WC.

Looming cuts will impact local families. 

A while back we emailed our State Rep Joseph Fox, asking if he might be willing to comment after Michigan’s Speaker of the House Matt Hall expressed his support for upcoming cuts to Medicaid and food assistance that were later passed by Congress.

We received this from his Legislative Director Spencer Good:
“Representative Fox respectfully declines to comment at this time. He does hope to address Near North Now readers once the full House budget package has been released. As I am sure you can imagine, the budget process is quickly evolving; Representative Fox is open to speaking on the matter, however, believes your questions will be best answered in view of legislative developments yet to come.”

Now that the cuts have been approved by Congress, we are anxious to hear what our State Rep. might believe is on the horizon for those who will be impacted by this bill and whether he supports the state stepping up to fill some of the upcoming gaps in services.
So, we emailed again this past week.

Hello Spencer.
Just following up to see if Rep. Fox would be willing to accept a few questions from our readers as to the changes coming in Medicaid and food distribution now that the bill has been passed?

Mr. Good replied that Rep. Fox respectively declined to comment on the Speaker (our previous request).
We responded by asking (once again) if Rep. Fox would be willing to field questions about the cuts to SNAP and Medicaid or perhaps just offer some comments on his reaction to these cuts.
On Tuesday we heard back from Spencer:
"At this time, Representative Fox is unable to comment. We will be in touch if and when he has something to say on the matter."

 Interesting response given the phrase 'unable to comment'. And apparently from the 'if and when', he may elect to have nothing at all to say on the matter which is concerning.
Particularly when it appears inevitable that when the cuts reach our region they will impact many in a county where 5661 families fall into the ALICE level* (ALICE stands for asset limited, income constrained and employed) and 2,607 county families fall within the poverty level*. This translates to 43% of our county’s families.

A month ago, a number of Newaygo County leaders gathered at TrueNorth and heard what the proposed cuts would mean to services in our county.
https://www.nearnorthnow.com/news/with-storm-clouds-on-the-horizon-community-leaders-meet

Family Health Care CEO Julie Tatko penned a guest column to outline the issues with the upcoming work requirements.
https://www.nearnorthnow.com/the-pulse/guest-article-medicaid-work-requirements-a-cut-by-any-other-name-is-still-a-cut

​​Well, it seems our Rep will be at the Fremont Library this Friday, August 1st from 10-11am to meet with constituents. If you are interested, it might be a good time to ask what concerns he might have given the impact predicted for his district. 

*For a family of four the ALICE level is $29,000 for an individual and about $74,500 for a family of four.
*The federal poverty level is $14,580 for an individual and $30,000 for a family of four.

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