It’s not just sports stadiums. Now taxpayers are being forced to pay for office renovations.

Photo Above - GM CEO Mary Barra in happier times, introducing the EV Chevy Bolt. But all Bolts were recalled because of battery fires. Now GM wants taxpayer subsidies for its new Detroit Headquarters.

“It’s only $350 million”. That’s what GM says it wants for demo and renovation of Detroit’s iconic Renaissance center.

If you’re gobsmacked because the complex is barely 40 years old, I’m with you. But then again, the average NFL stadium probably gets demolished that often. And THEY get billions.

No sports team is going bail on Detroit this time if city council doesn’t cough up $350 million. But General Motors is saying . . . well, it’s not exactly a threat. More of an open question. Should we keep GM office drones in the city, paying city income taxes and property taxes and sales taxes. Or should we move someplace else? Where to? Well, the Buffalo Bills threatened to go to Austin. Tesla already moved there. Maybe that should be on GM’s short list?

Should taxpayers sign off on this? Will they even be asked, or will it be a closed door agreement between Detroit’s most clever politicians, GM, and billionaire real estate moguls? I’m not aware of any referendum in front of the voters, so I’m assuming this is a non-democratic process.

But still, it’s ONLY $350 million. And Detroit has 651,000 people. That’s only . . . $540 per person. Including children, retirees, welfare recipients. The number of actual taxpayers getting hit will probably be somewhat less than 651,000. Your guess is as good as mine.

It this idea catches on, the sky’s the limit. Taxpayer bailouts for everything. Shopping malls. High rise condos. The Starbucks on the corner. They may need a bailout if the barista strike doubles employee wages and benefit.

Unlike a new stadium, Detroit’s long-suffering residents won’t be able to show up to GM/Ren Center headquarters on game day, pass through the gate, buy a hot dog and a beer, and enjoy themselves. They will only be able to look up at the towers as they drive by. Dad can point up, and tell his kids: “Hey look . . . Trevor. Up on the 73rd floor is Mary Barra, CEO of GM. We were afraid she’d move her entire team someplace else if we didn’t subsidize her skybox-style office suite. No . . . we can’t visit her. But it’s free to look at from the sidewalk.”

I’m just sayin’ . . .

GM Plans to Overhaul Detroit’s Iconic Towers. A Battle Is Brewing With Taxpayers.

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jehova · 31-35, M

I very much agree with how public dollars should be kept entirely seperate from private industry.
Essentially my main objection to the pending trump administration. Is the apparent desire to merge oil production with public investment and government dollars.
Far from the original oil industry, which was petroleum derived from thc hemp crop that grew wild throughout north america(Cannabis Rhuddheralis Kentucki). Thc has molecular formula is C21H30O2
When it is disolved in ethanol CH3CH2OH. It becomes crude oil
CnH2n+2 (roughly)
Upon saturation it is left to evaporate and becomes petroleum oil.
Gaaoline from agriculture. 1$ a gallon.
If trump can revive this domestic farm based source of gasoline. He will get elected to a third term.
Hed even get my vote.

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@jehova But where is the profit for the big oil companies?😷

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@jehova oil production is ALREADY "merged with public investment dollars".

How do you think BP (british petroleum) got the leasing rights to all those derricks in the gulf of mexico, and then created the worlds largest oil spill?

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@SusanInFlorida That merging goes back much further to the subsidizing of the oil companies by the government. Now one can argue national security and strategic reserve. But those arguments are negated at one end by the corporate profits and political donations by those same companies and by their efforts to keep alternative fuels out of the market.😷

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@whowasthatmaskedman nobody is conspiring to keep "alternative fuels out of the market". we're spending gazillions to perfect and subsidize them:

1 - liquid hydrogen
2 - LNG (liquified natural gas)
3 - shale oil
4 - ethanol from corn
5 - windmills
6 - solar panels
7 - fusion reactors
8 - tidal generators

most of these are private companies reaping huge government subsidies

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@SusanInFlorida OK. There is a real grab bag there. And many are fringe players like tidal power. A couple are science fiction like fusion reactors and some are desperate measures by oil, like shale oil. Corn is just another way to use the massive oversupply of corn in America. (Thats a whole seperate topic) and in fact Hemp would yield way better. As fot the rest, America is playing catch up. America should have been the market leader in wind power and solar panels. and manufacturing and exporting hydrogen years ago.. The oil industry and the car industry have marketed the gas guzzlers as a masculine image to appeal to "Muricans" for years..Then demanded protection against progress.😷