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.’

Despite San Antonio facing a staggering $5 billion infrastructure shortfall, many elected leaders are poised to spend $800 million in public funds to finance another Spurs basketball arena.

COPS/Metro, seeing through the project’s complicated funding structure, continues to be a leading voice for using this public money for the public’s benefit. At an August 5th commissioners court meeting, COPS/Metro Leader Rena Oden testified:

“It is unconscionable that you want to give this money for an arena when we have people dying from infrastructure or lack thereof. … Don’t tell us this money is only for arenas. Where is your imagination for our families? In the early 2000s, we voted on the venue tax where there was community benefit for all of us. This deal has no community benefit.” 

CCG (Coloradans for the Common Good) and member institution GES (Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea) Coalition brought together over 100 community members on June 17th for a seminar to build a constituency of residents who are connected, informed, and engaged on how the City of Denver invests in their community.

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The black, white and yellow yard signs blaring “No! Project Marvel” first appeared outside two houses in King William.

Then more cropped up in other neighborhoods farther from downtown…

The signs are part of a grassroots effort to derail the development of the city of San Antonio’s proposed downtown sports and entertainment district at Hemisfair, a multibillion-dollar undertaking that staff initially code-named Project Marvel…..

For more than a year, city staff discussed plans to transform downtown behind closed doors. They talked about building a new Spurs arena with franchise executives and required developers, consultants and Bexar County employees to sign nondisclosure agreements to talk about elements of Project Marvel....

No! Project Marvel is joining a much bigger and older organization in opposing Project Marvel.

COPS/Metro Alliance, a prominent interfaith community group, first came out against the district in December. It’s currently collecting signatures from voters who commit to rejecting any ballot measures that seek to use city or county dollars for the project. The organization’s leaders are knocking on doors and talking to parishioners at their 32 member churches and nonprofits.

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From KSAT:

“Many of our families are experiencing layoffs from their jobs. And families are being squeezed with cuts to SNAP and Medicaid. And here you are proposing a venue tax for yet another arena?" said Debra Garrett, a COPS/Metro leader with Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, who urged the county to spend money on raising county wages, affordable housing and infrastructure.

Last week, Central Valley IAF Sponsoring Committee (CVIAF) drew a crowd of leaders to Fresno City Hall to oppose the Southeast Development Area (SEDA) —a massive, 9,000-acre housing proposal that would redirect billions in taxpayer dollars away from Fresno’s existing neighborhoods. If approved, the project could saddle current and future residents with higher taxes and service rates for generations.

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Door after door, the response was the same: “Why would I vote? It’s not going to change anything.” Even in Grand Rapids, one of the key swing counties of the 2024 election, people felt despondent—powerless. But three months later, those neighbors had organized with hundreds of others in the city to win $20 million for their community—and that sense of powerlessness was changing...

Last Sunday, COPS/Metro packed St. Margaret Mary’s Catholic Church for its Accountability Session with 350 leaders and candidates for mayor and city council. The crowd represented over 28 institutions across San Antonio, including schools, interfaith congregations, non-profits, and community/neighborhood associations. 

COPS/Metro launched its Sign-Up, Take Charge campaign, pledging to sign up 50,000 registered voters in opposition of using tax dollars to finance Project Marvel, a multi-billion-dollar sports and entertainment district which has been planned almost entirely behind closed doors. Leaders committed to signing up 50,000 people in support of investing in people and local neighborhood infrastructure, and to delivering this constituency to the polls. 

One year after wresting control of industrial tax breaks away from a statewide board and into the hands of the local government entities affected by them, Together Baton Rouge released a report detailing how 2017 tax breaks impacted one community: East Baton Rouge. According to the report, the tax exemption cost local schools, sheriff, government, parks, libraries, fire and health departments $139 Million, just in 2017.