Top 10 CapCon stories for 2023

As 2023 comes to an end, it is time for CapCon’s annual list of top ten stories, based on readership.

10. There are no free school lunches, Aug 15. Media coverage depicts taxpayer-provided universal school lunch as “free” and as a gift granted by politicians. Both are wrong. There are no free lunches; taxpayers pay for every single one. Michigan is now the seventh state in the country to have taxpayers fully fund school lunches for all students, not just those from low-income households.

9. Sixty by 30: Whitmer slow-walks Michigan taxpayers into paying for all college education, Feb. 25. The governor plans a costly expansion of the Michigan Reconnect program.

8. EV battery maker lays off a quarter of staff, Nov. 29. One Next Energy announced layoffs after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from Michigan taxpayers.

7. EV battery maker gets $189M in corporate welfare, lays off 170 employees, Nov. 18. Two years before mass layoffs, EV battery maker LG Energy Solutions was given $189 million in taxpayer money.  

6. Ford pauses EV battery project; UAW calls decision ‘shameful,’ Sept. 26. Ford Motor Co. paused its Blue Oval Battery Park after Michigan lawmakers awarded it $1.7 billion in cash and other forms of corporate welfare.

5. Jennifer Granholm’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad EV trip, Sept. 13. United States Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm took a disastrous journey in an electric vehicle. The trip, meant to highlight the value of electric vehicles, instead made a national case against a government-endorsed push toward them.

4. Whitmer changes tune on road funding, Oct. 3. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer once claimed she needed to raise taxes to fix the roads. Now she takes credit for accomplishing the task without a tax hike.

3. Lenawee County learns that property it bought for $2.3M is worth $440k, Oct. 20. Local officials purchased property without first having it appraised. The county wasted millions as a result.

2. Whitmer abuse of emergency powers is déjà vu all over again, Sept. 26. Whitmer once again wielded her emergency powers after disastrous storms hit the Detroit area. 

1. Nearly 1 million Michiganders are subject to occupational licensing laws, Oct. 14. Occupational licensing has created a shortage in several occupations. There are ways to fix the problem.