Pork Stories

Detroit Auto Show gets $8M boost from Michigan taxpayers

This year’s confab will make one more attempt to revive dying market for electric vehicles

The North American International Auto Show, better known in Detroit as The Auto Show, was received an $8 million earmark in the 2024 Michigan budget.

The first automobile exhibit in Detroit happened in 1899 and was the precursor of what eventually would become the North American International Auto Show, according to the Detroit Historical Society. The event attracts up to 800,000 visitors each year and claims to have brought $1 billion in economic activity to the Detroit area in 2023, according to Fox 2 Detroit.

Admission ranges from $20 for adults to $10 for children. The show will produce millions of dollars in revenue from ticket sales and sponsors of the event. The next scheduled show is January 2025. The website for the event promises a “Powering Michigan EV Experience” and says visitors will have the chance to “immerse themselves in a wide range of electric vehicles.”

Electric vehicle sales have slowed due to waning demand, as a growing number of owners report problems with charging times, cost and charging availability. Ford Motor Co. announced it will shift 1,400 employees from producing its Ford F150 Lightning to working on gas-powered vehicles, according to The Wall Street Journal.

CapCon is committed to highlighting the problem with pork projects funded by taxpayers, including industry trade shows.

When lawmakers award the money there is no vetting process, committee hearings on the necessity of the funding, and no way for other organizations to compete for the pot of money. Awardees are hand-picked by lawmakers who lobby to bring state tax money to their districts.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Story

Why $125M won’t buy many electric school buses

A round of Michigan bus grants in 2022 came to $391K per bus; nationwide average is $360K per bus

Michigan’s school aid fund will spend $125 million in 2024 on electric school buses. A recent round of federal funding for electric school buses indicates school districts might not get many vehicles out of the expenditure.

In November 2022, the state announced $54 million in clean school bus rebates, covering 138 buses at 25 school districts.

That averages out to $391,304 per bus.

If Michigan were to buy $125 million worth of school buses at the same cost, it would equate to about 319 buses.

The budget bill was passed in such a way that charging infrastructure is a qualified cost. Depending on how much infrastructure is needed, there could be fewer than 319 buses bought.

The funds for all the buses mentioned come from the same source: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program, which will spend $5 billion over five years, 2022 through 2026.

So far, the program has spent about $1.84 billion to replace 5,103 school buses at a cost of $360,572 per bus.

 

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.