According to MLive Media Group, billionaires like the DeVos and Ilitch families have, for eight years, benefited from Michigan’s Transformational Brownsfield tax incentive program, which funnels billions of public dollars into huge private developments meant to revitalize abandoned spaces and attract workers.

“But to (Together West Michigan Leader) Satorie Spicer, 28, born and raised in Grand Rapids, these projects are ‘not for us.’

As the state OK’d a $252 million Transformational Brownfield subsidy for the first project, Spicer, a full-time working mother of two, looked at $94 left in her budget. After paying bills, her dollars were stretched thin.

Am I going to spend that on going to a soccer stadium, she wondered....

For John Willette, another member of Together West Michigan (TWM), one question rattles in his brain: Transformational for who?

'Is this a project that’s designed to serve the interest of the residents of Grand Rapids or is this a project that’s about some people’s idea of legacy?'"

As Grand Rapids prepared to hand over $565 million dollars in public money for a private, luxury downtown development, TWM won a commitment to use the funds for real community benefit - $50 million in contracts for minority, micro-local, and women-owned businesses. They will continue to press public officials to make this commitment a reality.

On September 25th, TWM will kick off their Civic Academy campaign: "Show Me The Public Money" to continue developing an informed constituency to confront these tax giveaways and prioritize public money for community benefit.

[Photo Credit: Issac Ritchey, MLive] 

How Billionaires Tap a Lucrative Tax Incentive to Reshape Michigan's Biggest Cities, MLive [pdf]