Bribing people to move to Midtown...with your taxdollars. (Detroit: sale, loans)

[Retroit]

DMC, Wayne State, Henry Ford offer employees up to $25K to live in Midtown | detnews.com | The Detroit News (http://detnews.com/article/20110114/BIZ/101140398/DMC--Wayne-State--Henry-Ford-offer-employees-up-to-$25K-to-live-in-Midtown#ixzz1B1tEMpML - broken link)

...matching funds came from...the Michigan State Housing Development Authority...

I realize it may be the only way to force people to move there, but should a state with a $1.8 Billion deficit be wasting money encouraging people to play "musical houses"?

[ForStarters]

"MSHDA's loans and operating expenses are financed through the sale of tax-exempt and taxable bonds and notes to private investors, not from state tax revenues." MSHDA - About Michigan State Housing Authority (MSHDA)

I think the total amount matched by the MSHDA for this entire project is around 200k, hardly a bribe.

[Retroit]

Originally Posted by ForStarters

"MSHDA's loans and operating expenses are financed through the sale of tax-exempt and taxable bonds and notes to private investors, not from state tax revenues." MSHDA - About Michigan State Housing Authority (MSHDA)

I think the total amount matched by the MSHDA for this entire project is around 200k, hardly a bribe.

And how do you think those bonds are paid off?

[Ohio248]

So Michigan taxpayers will be paying for these institutions to bribe their workers to live in Midtown.

I thought the state was broke? Apparently it still has money to waste on Detroit subsidies? Keep in mind this does NOTHING to the region. It doesn't attract additional folks or do anything to the economy. It just bribes people to live in one city instead of another city.

Nice "change", Snyder. So far, you sound like Granholm Part 2.

[ForStarters]

Originally Posted by Retroit

And how do you think those bonds are paid off?

Hopefully, ROI from increased tax revenues, but who knows. Honestly, I am with you in thinking that it is inappropriate for MSHDA to be contributing funding to this project, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to other problems. I'm sure the 1 million dollar incentive offered by the three employers was sufficient without MSHDA chipping in an extra 200k, but if there were a list of things to gripe about, this one would be like a thousand down from the top. If it ends up convincing a few extra people who were already on the fence about living in Midtown to live in Midtown, so be it. It's not the worst thing in the world.

[ForStarters]

Originally Posted by Ohio248

Nice "change", Snyder. So far, you sound like Granholm Part 2.

Dude, you need to chill out. The man has been in office for less than 14 days.

[Slappy san]

This doesn't "force" people to live in Midtown.

The state's contribution is a drop in the bucket compared to the institutions.

The actual amount given per person is pretty small in my opinion. People who have been drinking the kool-aid about Midtown being the wild wild west aren't going to move for that pocket change.

People sitting outside (and inside) the city don't realize or don't care that more people living in the city helps the entire region. They'll criticize just about anything regarding Detroit. It's like an involuntary reflex.

[Retroit]

Originally Posted by ForStarters

... it is a drop in the bucket compared to other problems...if there were a list of things to gripe about, this one would be like a thousand down from the top...

And that's the problem. We have thousands of examples of waste in our state government and they all add up. No one wants cuts in their pet projects, and as a result we accumulate a large deficit.

[Retroit]

Originally Posted by Slappy san

They'll criticize just about anything regarding Detroit. It's like an involuntary reflex.

So you would have no problem with the government using your tax dollars to encouraging people to move to the suburbs?

The state should encourage people to move to the state, not move from one Michigan city to another. That does nothing to help the state economy.

If Detroit wants to waste their taxpayers dollars to force people to live there, I have no problem with it. (Although I would have a problem if my city was doing the same with my tax dollars.)

I use the term "force" because when you have to give people a bribe/subsidy to do something that they otherwise wouldn't, that's a use of force. Force = mass * acceleration (Newton's 2nd Law of Motion)

[zthatzmanz28]

Let them give me a job and I will move there for FREE...