(The Center Square) – Michigan’s government mobility sector racked up nearly $65,000 in taxpayer-funded charges by attending a three-day event called EcoMotion Week 2023 in Israel from May 22-24, 2023.
Spending records obtained through Freedom of Information Act records requests show $22,329 spent on lodging, meals, travel, and security. Sponsorship cost $20,000, the booth build costs $15,000, and flights cost $7,166.
The event gathered speakers and partners from venture capital, Honda Xcelerator Ventures, Porsche Digital Israel, Deloitte Catalyst, Hyundai Cradle, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which was listed as a gold event sponsor.
The event focused on autonomous and connected vehicles, mobility services, electrification and energy, drones and aviation, and supply chain.
Michigan’s Interim Chief Mobility Officer Kathryn Snorrason was featured in the panel session “Collaboration between the Private Sector and Public Sector for Sustainable City Development.”
John Mozena, president of the Center for Economic Accountability, a nonprofit organization for transparent economic development policy said the event “is a perfect encapsulation of what passes for an economic development strategy in Michigan these days: If it’s got the right ‘eco’ or ‘mobility’ buzzwords attached to it, then throw money at it no matter how unlikely the ROI [return on investment] might be,” Mozena wrote in an email. “That’s how Michigan’s taxpayers are ending up on the hook for billion-dollar subsidies for electric vehicle battery plants where workers will be making fast-food wages.”
The event website describes itself as “one of the most exciting and dedicated smart mobility events globally bringing together thousands of innovation enthusiasts from startups, industry, investors, and public sector.”
In January, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spent at least $44,117 on her European trip to Davos to speak at the World Economic Forum. The second-term governor is trying to drum up support for electric vehicles, although only about 25,181 are currently registered statewide.
On an earlier trip this year, Whitmer claims she sealed a deal to attract a $400 million investment in renewable hydrogen and hydrogen fueling equipment for road-based vehicles that will create 500 jobs.
Mozena said Michigan lawmakers and the government are focusing on the wrong goals.
“What’s truly disappointing is that while MEDC staffers are jetting around the globe to try to talk up Michigan as a place to do business, the Whitmer administration and state legislature are busy passing laws that make the state far less attractive than any number of $15,000 trade show booths could ever overcome,” Mozena wrote.
Mozena cited the 37th annual corporate survey that found “labor costs,” “availability of skilled labor,” and “construction costs” as three of the five top factors corporate site selectors want.
“Despite this, the legislature is hurting Michigan’s competitiveness on all of those factors by repealing right to work, imposing costly policies like prevailing wage rules and project labor agreements, and otherwise making Michigan a place where what workers want or what employers need take a back seat to fattening union bosses’ bank accounts – and their political action committee donations,” Mozena wrote.
