And 500 trees BTW is really not very many.  It is about a single truck load.

The guise of promotion and enhancing operations is the best way for the camels nose to get under the tent flap of unsuspecting small business owners.

One must ask "why in blazes would ANYONE ask to have the federal government take more of their hard earned dollars to implement public relations work?" And also "Why would the association responsible for such work encourage its membership to ask for it?"

Isn't it their job?

If I was a member of the Michigan Christmas Tree Association, I would ask for the resignation of Gray, or I would make sure not a dime (or 15 cents) in dues goes towards such capitulation to an ever expanding presence of government in the affairs of our private business.

Like many other industries, even the tree growers have their own trade magazine.  Like any other business, there are costs and benefit to the type of business they operate.  There are multiple ways of accessing information accumulated for the benefit of growers, and many ways in which they can expand the scope of their operations through innovation and advertising.  The idea that it takes a few extra government bureaucrats to make it happen faster doesn't really light the bulb at the top, ya know?

The evergreen nature and nonstop growth in government hardly needs a new entry to propel even more intrusion and effect on our lives, or the lives of those who wish to remain smaller operations.

Michigan growers don't need a new set of bureaucrats hanging on their tress like the Mao ornaments in the white house this year, or next for that matter.