Tag: Crony Capitalism (page 3)

The Disney blockbuster "Oz: The Great and Powerful" opens tonight. The film cost the studio about $200 million to make, but Michigan taxpayers chipped in substantially for the production through the state's generous film subsidy program. In fact, the state paid more per taxpayer than the average price of a movie ticket - Michigan residents should be seeing the film for free.

Michigan has 4.5 million individual taxpayers, and the state gave the film studio $39.7 million to shoot in Pontiac. That works out to a subsidy of $8.82 per taxpayer while average ticket prices nationwide are $7.96.

The subsidy was granted in 2010 when the program refunded up to 42 percent of Michigan expenses to film makers - essentially a check from the treasury to Hollywood studios. The program expired, but the Legislature, dominated by Republicans, overwhelmingly decided to keep it around.

Despite "conservatives" who claim to not like the government picking winners and losers and "liberals" who say government shouldn't benefit large corporations and big business, Michigan politicians continue to spend taxpayer money on the program. The state has budgeted $50 million  this year with political leaders on both sides of the aisle pushing for more.

REST

What total crap.  Lansing could only find a way to free up 29% of the monies for maintaining our waterways in comparison to what Hollywood ripped off on one movie filmed in a mismanaged broke-ass city with an EFM.  You read that right.  $11.5M, and STEALING $8.7M from projects already underway to pay for dredging.

The Governerd's half billion dollar piggy bank?  Hands off.  Damn near $40M in our tax dollars sent to Disney with assets totaling $74.8 Billion?  No problem.  The Water Wonderland?  Take a hike.

Rick, forgot to clearly state his main premise of the Big C - crony capitalism.

As we have seen recently, the Chinese were subsidized and transferred Battery Technology by Taxpayers through the likes of the MEDC and Federal programs interfering with free markets. It was pretty bad, but ..

It wasn't the first time.

A Michigan-based company slated to produce lithium-ion polymer batteries for electric vehicles has instead kept production overseas, has failed to meet job targets outlined in a $150 million grant from the federal government, and has been reimbursed by the government for $842,000 in wasted work time, according to a U.S. Department of Energy Special Report released Wednesday.

The DOE says Holland, Mich.-based LG Chem Michigan misused part of a $150 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and has decided not to shift production from its plant in South Korea to Michigan. It painted a stark picture of wasted U.S. federal dollars.

"Until the shift in production takes place or some alternative use for the plant is developed, U.S. taxpayers will receive little direct benefit from a plant for which they provided up to half of the funding," the report said.

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The DEQ recently was recognized by an International environmental group for its pollution prevention efforts.

The department was a 2012 North America Gold winner of the International Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practices by The Green Organisation, an independent, non-political, non-profit organization that recognizes, rewards, and promotes environmental best practices around the world.

How do you like them apples?  Nothing like the cost savings associated with keeping the incredibly expensive global green hoax alive with such not-ready-for-primetime ideals that are rewarding subsidy to foreign nations, or are being bought by Communists for pennies on the US taxpayer Dollar.

In Mid-December, Senator Carl Levin posted a position piece supporting further battery technology spending by taxpayers in Michigan.  He states:

That's why an announcement in November by the Department of Energy was so important to Michigan. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, a consortium of government, university and private-sector research labs aimed at revolutionizing battery technology.

Fittingly, Michigan is playing a key role in the effort. The consortium, headquartered at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, will include research hubs at Johnson Controls in Holland, and on the University of Michigan campus. Dow Chemical in Midland is also a key corporate partner.

The JCESR is nothing short of a Manhattan Project-styled effort to blow through the technical and economic limitations imposed by existing battery technology. Despite enormous progress that has allowed impressive accomplishments in hybrid vehicles and plug-in electric vehicles such as the Chevy Volt, today's batteries are still bigger, heavier, more expensive and lower capacity than we'd like. With technical improvements, we can bring down costs, reduce our dependence on imported oil and protect our environment.

The answer to this challenge is an effort that, as my colleague Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois put it, "brings together, under a single organizational roof, the world's leading scientists, engineers and manufacturers in energy storage and provides them with the tools, resources and market reach necessary to produce major breakthroughs."

Between the sale of battery technology to China, and a dismal failure of LG Chem to realize the investment made:

"But now you're getting it. Reporters who visited the Michigan factory of the South Korean company LG Chem, which got $151 million in stimulus money to manufacture lithium-ion batteries, discovered workers sitting around playing Monopoly and poker. The employees said it wasn't their fault: "What do you do when there's no work?"  "

As far as going all-in with these schemes, one might better be served with the proverbial 'fool me once .." advice.  Frankly, Senator Levin should take the advice given to Harry Reid by the weeper last night.