Tag: taxpayer subsidy

Michigan Gov. Whitmer Plans to Give Businesses Hundreds of Millions in Subsidies, But Similar Programs’ Track Record Has Been Questioned

Bradley Vasoli
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

This week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) announced plans to expand her $300-million Michigan Mainstreet Initiative, outlining further business subsidization with taxpayer money from federal COVID-relief legislation.

Originally unveiled in June, Whitmer’s initiative targeted $100 million toward restaurants and other place-based establishments, $125 million for other businesses that could not get federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds and $75 million in grants to startups.

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Amazon’s $100 Million-Plus Tennessee Tax Incentives Deal ‘Unfair and Immoral,’ Beacon Center Says

Jason M. Reynolds

The State of Tennessee’s and Metro Nashville’s $102 million taxpayer gift to Amazon is not a Prime deal, a public watchdog organization says. Amazon turned down Nashville for its coveted two new headquarters sites, called HQ2, but Nashville landed a $230 million operations center near downtown in the future Nashville Yards. For more on Amazon’s Nashville announcement, see this story in The Tennessee Star. Mark Cunningham, vice president of communications and outreach at the Beacon Center of Tennessee, criticized the deal. The center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to providing empirical research and free market solutions for Tennesseans. Cunningham said, “Nashville was passed over for Amazon’s second (and third) headquarters, yet city and state officials still got scammed into giving the company more than $100 million in taxpayer giveaways for a consolation prize, which includes $80 million in cash handouts. Amazon, one of the world’s most valuable companies, and the government played taxpayers with this incentive deal, and it is time for us to speak up against this type of corporate welfare. While we welcome new businesses and the jobs they create to our state, forcing middle-class Tennesseans and small businesses to give their hard-earned dollars to a multi-billion dollar business is both unfair and immoral.” Rick Manning,…

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Ryman CEO Says $9 Billion Nashville Transit Plan ‘Scared the Living Daylights Out of Me’

Jason M. Reynolds
Colin Reed

The CEO of Ryman Hospitality Properties now says he was never on board for Nashville’s $9 billion light-rail plan, which went off the tracks at a May 1 referendum, the Nashville Business Journal said. The transit proposal came to a crashing halt after voters defeated it by 64-34 percent on May 1, The Tennessee Star reported at the time. Business supporters included McNeely Piggot & Fox, which handled the failed plan’s PR, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Nashville Predators. Now, the Nashville Business Journal says Colin Reed, CEO of Ryman Hospitality Properties, had some misgivings. “I had some of the same concerns that the ‘antis’ had,” the Nashville Business Journal quotes him as saying. “The notion of tearing up the middle of Broadway for an extended period of time, building a tunnel underneath and bringing it up somewhere on Broadway, concerned the living daylights out of me. Building rail lines in the middle of highways concerns the life out of me. This was a huge amount of money. What we have to fix is morning-time rush hour and evening-time rush hour. That’s where our problems reside here. I felt like this whole evolution we’re seeing with self-driving…

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Nashville Soccer Club Lands Internationally Famous Executive for Taxpayer-Funded Stadium

Jason M. Reynolds
Ian Ayre MLS Soccer

Internationally renowned soccer executive Ian Ayre was announced as the first-ever CEO of Nashville’s Major League Soccer club on Monday, NewsChannel 5 reported. His team will have a nice taxpayer-funded stadium in which to play. Ayre served as CEO of Liverpool Football Club of the English Premier League, one of the most respected soccer clubs in the world, the station reported. He has a record of success, having being voted Premier League Chief Executive of the Year in 2017. According to leaders with the MLS expansion team in Nashville, he was the top pick for the job. Ayre’s team will play soccer in a taxpayer-subsidized stadium in a deal helped along by former Mayor Megan Barry, The Tennessee Star reported in December. The Metro Council voted 31 to 6 to “approve $225 million in revenue bonds for a soccer stadium at the Nashville Fairgrounds despite concerns about the fairgrounds’ existing uses as well as the growing list of costly city projects,”over the objections of some Metro Council members. Save Our Fairground then filed a lawsuit to stop the MLS soccer stadium construction, which was ultimately dismissed. The Nashville Sports Authority was a finalist for the Beacon Center’s 2017 “Pork of the…

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