(The Center Square) – A records request shows spending details of a $20 million taxpayer-funded grant that included a $11,000 plane ticket and a $4,500 coffee maker.
Metro Detroit businesswoman and Michigan Economic Development Corp. executive committee member Fay Beydoun received a $20 million grant for her company Global Link International to attract international business.
The Detroit News first reported the expenditures including $100,000 sponsorship, an $11,000 plane ticket, and $9,400 on annual membership dues to the Detroit Regional Chamber.
One item was a Z10 diamond white Jura coffeemaker that cost $4,526 after adding 10 accessories including $359 for cool control, a $249 cup warmer, $196 for filters, $68 for decalcifying tablets, $25 for a milk system cleaner, and $50 for a glass milk container, among other items.
Other expenses were $21,400 on Wayfair furniture, more than $4,000 in hotel rooms, $3,950 to a recruiter to find a chief of staff, and $40,800 for 2 years of housing.
The grant condition doesn't require an audit until half of the money is spent.
John Mozena, president of the Center for Economic Accountability, a nonprofit organization for transparent economic development policy, said the grant seems to be a “perfect example” of how Michigan’s economic development system is “run far more for the benefit of the people in power and their cronies than for the benefit of the community as a whole and the taxpayers who fund the whole corrupt mess.”
Mozena said many people in decision-making positions work in nonprofits that would benefit either directly or indirectly from projects. He said the state’s “elites” run the MEDC and Michigan Strategic Fund, which “avoid transparency” through record request exemptions and nondisclosure agreements.
“It’s not just corporations, either,” Mozena wrote in an email. “A number of people in decision-making positions are in nonprofit roles where their institutions stand to gain either directly, or indirectly through corporate donors. We saw this recently with the Gotion plant near Big Rapids, where the state’s subsidies included money for nearby Ferris State University, and the president of Ferris State is on the MEDC executive board and was one of the plant’s biggest cheerleaders.”
The report sparked an outcry for an investigation into grant spending from Republican lawmakers.
Rep. Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay Township, previously said that MEDC Chief Executive Quentin L. Messer Jr. should immediately halt and examine the grant project.
“Taxpayers across our state who helped foot the bill for this apparent boondoggle shouldn’t have to wait until $10 million is gone for this to be reviewed,” DeBoyer said in a statement. “That accountability should be delivered now.”
Attorney General Dana Nessel's office has opened an investigation into the grant but can't comment further.
Most Popular
Comments / 0