Sausage Making

Regional 'payoffs' still ignore proper role of government.

Cronyism is now everywhere.

I have written at the beginning of Snyder’s terms that he was the guy who essentially brought the neu-cronyism to Michigan.  He invented the current form, and served as its first overlord.  Money spent in ways that used to invite constitutional challenges, now routinely passes through the sieve of Lansing into favored projects and could be expected to always get the blessing of the governor.

I doubt the new governor will do anything but enhance it’s reach as she attempts to cajole lawmakers from the ‘other side’ to embrace her sure-to-be bizarre mechanizations that raise the cost of government further.  Sadly, it is a Republican legislature that continues to make this kind of thing happen:

$10M In Sports Funding Coming: Is Indoor Traverse City Sports Complex Next?

By Beth Milligan | Dec. 29, 2018

$10 million in state funding is headed to northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula to create a regional sports commission – an initiative that dovetails with an effort by Traverse City Tourism to explore opening a year-round indoor sports complex in Traverse City.

Governor Rick Snyder signed off Friday on two supplemental spending bills totaling $1.3 billion for numerous projects throughout the state, including road upgrades, contamination clean-up, and education initiatives. The bills – approved earlier this month by state lawmakers – also include funding for community projects throughout Michigan, including $10 million to establish the Northern Michigan Regional Tourism and Sports Fund and to create a Great Lakes Sports Commission.

… Traverse City Tourism hired a consulting firm earlier this year to conduct a feasibility study on whether there is a need for such a facility in the area, how much it would cost to construct, and if it would be financially sustainable. The firm’s results are expected in January. But Traverse City Tourism President/CEO Trevor Tkach says preliminary findings “prove there is enough demand to run a cash-positive business if the facility gets built.”

Maybe “cash positive” means profit?  Maybe, maybe not.

My guess is the great unwashed and underinformed are to take that comment as an affirmative on the profit question.  They don’t really say it is, but wink wink nod …nod.  If, as it is suggested in the write up above that such an effort could be profitable, please let a private concern spend their/it’s money and benefit from it.  Why would we at all get in the middle of a free market, yeah?

Folks who rally behind such efforts seem to look only at one side of the ledger. In government however, #MetToo is not limited to binary gender misbehavior, but extends out to multiple interests that feed off the sausagemaking fest in Lansing. Everyone has a pet project that “would be really special” if only it could be financed with other people’s money.

When I have run for office in the past, people ask why “I don’t want government.”  It is frustrating to have to explain countless times that my not wanting THIS type of government (cronyism, if you aren’t following along) hardly implies an anti government position.

Government has a place, and this ain’t it.  And while $10 million is certainly a drop-in-the-bucket when looking at the unreasonably high budget that sits in the high $50 Billions arena, it sits aside too many others that are cheering on the same selfish and inappropriate use of public dollars.

The sausage bucket is full, yet so full of holes that it is amazing we have even the state’s legitimate needs being served.

Or, are they really being served at all?

You Betcha! (8)Nuh Uh.(0)

  3 comments for “Sausage Making

  1. Isabelle Terry
    December 31, 2018 at 9:54 am

    Remember Governor Engler created the MEDC. Cronyism wrapped up in paper to make it look like Economic Development. Horrible.

    You Betcha! (4)Nuh Uh.(0)
    • Jason
      December 31, 2018 at 9:59 am

      Yes he did. And Snyder was it's first CEO. It was his design, his baby. And it grew up to be an 800lb gorilla.

      You Betcha! (3)Nuh Uh.(0)
      • Corinthian Scales
        December 31, 2018 at 1:05 pm

        Indeed: https://rightmi.com/overloaded-your-asses-huh/

        You Betcha! (3)Nuh Uh.(0)

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