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Richard Morrison @richardmorrison.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Reposted by John Mozena

The world of responsible investing has taken a hit recently, but one principle that shouldn't be controversial is "No welfare for billionaires." See the new study from @johnmoz.bsky.social and myself on why companies should swear off taxpayer giveaways and special deals: cei.org/publication/...

cei.org

Corporate Social Irresponsibility - Competitive Enterprise Institute

Executive summary State and municipal governments across America are engaged in a massive transfer of public resources to private corporate interests in the name of economic development. However, the ...

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

I, for one, am SHOCKED that a consulting firm part-owned by Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and Hank Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees would be anything but scrupulously rigorous in its assessment of the economic impact of professional sports teams on their communities.

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Reposted by John Mozena

Kasia Tarczynska @kasia-t.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

In the last two years, Twitter/X data center was exempt from paying $12 million in property taxes in Hillsboro. This money, if paid, would go to support public services, like the local fire department which fire fighters, despite everything, rushed to help.

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Closing the valve on history: Flint cuts water flow from Detroit after nearly 50 years

It was more complicated than that. Flint's elected officials were the ones pushing to get off Detroit water (which was its own dysfunctional clusterfuck; multiple people did federal time for corruption) and onto the new regional water system they'd co-founded. www.mlive.com/news/flint/2...

mlive.com

FLINT, MI – It will take two days before Flint residents can taste history.

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I had plenty of issues with Snyder, to be sure, but I think it's deeply unfair to hang Flint around his neck. He spent his governorship trying in (generally) good faith to clean up messes created by decades of mismanagement and that last one ended up unfairly defining his legacy.

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The "Rick Snyder poisoned Flint" narrative was a political hit job aimed at a then-popular swing state Midwestern governor, diverting attention from the fact that Flint's own water plant poisoned its citizens because the city's elected officials had been illegally raiding water maintenance funds.

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Snyder would actually have been a great Fellow there. His tenure as governor was incredibly interesting and productive - generational structural fiscal reforms, his handling of Detroit's issues was so adept and thoughtful that the city's Black newspaper endorsed him for reelection, etc.

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Forget the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix, I had the best motorsports experience this weekend.

John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

@edsbs.bsky.social @hollyanderson.bsky.social Crushed to miss @channel6.bsky.social visit to Ann Arbor this year; son got me & my wife tickets to Devo show that night for our anniversary. Apologies in advance if any questions about Japanese aircraft carriers and/or GMAC Cash go unanswered. Go Blue.

John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Subsidizing stadiums is always dumb, but writing teams a blank check in a time of incredible economic uncertainty after voters already rejected a previous proposal is a special kind of Big Dumb.

John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Yes. According to my son, that's his primary appeal to a certain population of young men in their late teens & early 20s who seem to view him as some sort of hilarious living meme.

John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Figured it out: Stephen Miller is what would have happened if Pauly Shore had gotten sorted into Slytherin.

John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

No, free(r) trade, especially NAFTA, did not kill American manufacturing employment. Manufacturing as a share of the U.S. workforce had been falling steadily for decades when NAFTA was signed in 1992, and it kept falling steadily afterward.

John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

I was briefly, for my sins, the PR guy for the Not Very Nice Person who bought the Silverdome for $583,000. It was a miserable experience except for two things: I got to go up on the roof (terrible photo below), and I can say I had the key to the Silverdome on my keychain.

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Please stop not putting the crest on our kits.

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Can probably get this one used somewhere

John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

I didn’t realize Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve was going to be open-casket.

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Reposted by John Mozena

Center for Economic Accountability @accountableecon.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Charlotte's $650 million in subsidized renovations for privately owned Bank of America Stadium wins our Worst Economic Development Deal of the Year Award for 2024. Cost, poor transparency, bad ROI arguments and a partner's past history all played a role. economicaccountability.org/2024/12/30/c...

economicaccountability.org

Charlotte’s Football Stadium Renovations Named 2024’s “Worst Economic Development Deal of the Year” by The Center for Economic Accountability

December 30, 2024 – The Center for Economic Accountability has given its “Worst Economic Development Deal of the Year Award” for 2024 to Charlotte, N.C.’s city government for its deal to spend $650…

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

My car tire looks like a Mille Bornes card

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

My 78-y/o father today claimed that he doesn’t have a Spotify shuffle button because, and I quote, “My phone is too old.” (It is, in fact, old; it’s an iPhone 6 with the physical home button. But it does not have a non-shuffling Spotify app. He just couldn’t find it despite being sent screenshots.)

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

This raises the practical question of whether Chuck, Shaq, Ernie & Kenny have LinkedIn accounts.

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

There's bad economic development policy, really bad economic development policy, REALLY REALLY bad economic development policy, and then there's my home state of Michigan:

A chart listing the total economic development incentives handed out by each state between 2018 and 2023, with Michigan having handed out $2.663 billion, far ahead of second-place South Carolina at $1.617 billion.

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Reposted by John Mozena

Nicholas Sarwark @sarwark.org · 12/12/2024

“If there are flaws in the system, the last thing the governor should be doing is pushing forward to kill people before those flaws are fixed,” said Nicholas Sarwark, executive director of the Libertarian Policy Institute. www.kjzz.org/politics/202...

kjzz.org

Critics call on Hobbs to complete 'independent' death penalty review

A diverse collection of groups from across the political spectrum are calling on Gov. Katie Hobbs to complete an independent review of how the state carries out executions.

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Some good news: At 4 pm today, the agenda for tomorrow's MI Senate Economic Development committee meeting was revised to remove the film subsidy bills. I'm hearing there's enough bipartisan opposition to make Senate passage unlikely...for now at least. Hooray!

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We're told Michigan needs massive film subsidies to "compete" for film industry jobs with other states that have their own subsidy programs. In reality, we'd be losing just by taking part in this rigged competition. Michigan's legislators need to relearn the lesson of a great film from my childhood:

a computer screen displays greetings professor falken hello and a strange game

ALT: a computer screen displays greetings professor falken hello and a strange game

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At the end of the day, film subsidies are a purely vibes-based attempt by politicians to purchase Hollywood glamour at the expense of piles of taxpayer dollars that could be doing a lot of good elsewhere. It's economic development policy, Joker-style:

the joker says it 's not about money , it 's about sending a message

ALT: the joker says it 's not about money , it 's about sending a message

The #mileg Senate Economic Development Committee meets on film subsidy bills SB 438 & 439 tomorrow. I urge Sens. @mallorymcmorrow.bsky.social, Polehanki, Moss, Geiss, Cavanagh, Rivet, Victory, Lindsey & Webber not to greenlight this terrible sequel.

a bald man in a white uniform is saying how bout no

ALT: a bald man in a white uniform is saying how bout no

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"But the jobs!" you say. Well, the MPAA got caught including people employed making popcorn at multiplex concession stands as "film industry jobs" in an attempt to justify Georgia subsidies that cost every household in the state $220 a year. So much for "good film industry jobs..."

a man in a chef 's hat is hanging out , pushing buttons and stuff in a restaurant .

ALT: a man in a chef 's hat is hanging out , pushing buttons and stuff in a restaurant .

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It's not film producers who use these tax credits; they rarely owe state taxes anyway. That's why Michigan's corporate welfare-addicted big businesses love these things, because they can buy them at 95 cents on the dollar and cash them in to reduce their own tax bills.

I Want You To Get The Word Out There That We Back Up The Wire GIF

ALT: I Want You To Get The Word Out There That We Back Up The Wire GIF

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Film subsidy programs require us to trust Hollywood accountants - the same people who claimed "The Empire Strikes Back" hadn't made a profit two decades after its release, and who got caught expensing "lost petty cash" as a production expense in Georgia - to tell us the truth.

a man with a beard says " so what i told you was true ... from a certain point of view "

ALT: a man with a beard says " so what i told you was true ... from a certain point of view "

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While industry consultants make wild claims, there hasn't been an official state audit anywhere across the country over the past decade that found a net positive ROI for film subsidies. At BEST they lose 34 cents on the dollar, at worst they lose 94. (Chart from documents.ncsl.org/wwwncsl/Fisc...)

Table titled "Estimated Tax Revenue Impacts: State Agencies vs Private Firms" from a 2024 Rhode Island Department of Revenue report on film tax credits, listing official audit results in 14 states between 2016 and 2022.

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We have decades' worth of real-world evidence that film tax credits are a terrible idea that inevitably end up costing taxpayers money. In fact, the last time Michigan had a major film subsidy program, we ended up with fewer film industry jobs than we started with.

Scene from the TV show Arrested Development:

Woman: "Well, did it work for those people?"
Man: "No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might but... But it might work for us."

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(To be fair, as with just about all terrible corporate welfare programs in Michigan, this is a bipartisan bad idea. The House versions of these bills were from Republican sponsor Rep. John Roth and @mihousedems.bsky.social Rep. Jason M. Hoskins.)

The "muscled black arm and white arm clasping hands" meme with one arm labeled "big business," one labeled "big government" and the joined hands labeled "economic development subsidies."

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Hollywood sequels suck, especially this one. Like Jason from a grave, Palpatine from a clone tank or Mickey Rourke from rehab, film subsidies are making an attempted comeback in Michigan thanks to legislation from @senpolehanki.bsky.social, @jeremymoss.bsky.social & @erikageiss.bsky.social. #mileg

a close up of a person wearing a jason voorhees helmet in the dark .

ALT: a close up of a person wearing a jason voorhees helmet in the dark .

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Worse game plan: Ryan Day or Yoon Suk Yeol?

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It's the most wonderful time of the year.

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Supply and demand works for housing, and if a city lets people build more places to live it will cost less to live there. For Midwestern cities (and other places) that are trying to fight off stagnation and decline, legalizing new housing is an economic development cheat code.

Center for Economic Accountability @accountableecon.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Just in case anyone in Detroit thought that Dan Gilbert was only willing to screw the people of *our* city in the pursuit of taxpayer-funded profits.

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Reposted by John Mozena

We're facing off against the combined power of big business and big government. We've got facts and data on our side, but we need your support as well. economicaccountability.org/support/

economicaccountability.org

Support the CEA

Thank you for your interest in supporting The Center for Economic Accountability’s mission to bring transparency, accountability and free-market-based reforms to state and local economic deve…

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

It's a windfall for all the lobbyists who now get to go get exemptions for their clients like they did the first time around.

John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Canada is America's biggest trading partner. Roughly 25% of that trade comes through Detroit, where I live. That includes ~$10B in parts & materials for U.S. automakers, who in turn sell ~$18B of cars & trucks in Canada. What happens when everything traveling over this bridge is 25% more expensive?

Photograph of busy truck traffic over Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON.

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John Mozena @johnmoz.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Food. Clothing. Phones & computers. Pharmaceuticals. Construction materials. Etc. The argument for other states is that consumers there can switch to same/lower-priced domestic sourcing, but Hawaii (and Alaska) often don't have that option thanks to combination of geography and policy (Jones Act).