Friday, August 14, 2015

$22 million in taxpayer funds flushed away on Detroit cruise ship lure

Detroit River
Before squandering $22 million in taxpayer dollar, perhaps the bureaucrats should have asked cruise ship operators if they really wanted to dock in Detroit.

From the Detroit News:
Taxpayers anted up $22 million for a new Detroit riverfront building to entice Great Lakes cruise ships and other passenger traffic. They built it — but the ships never came.

Instead, four years after construction of the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority public dock, the building is used almost exclusively by a politically connected catering company for deluxe weddings and other parties.

Only one cruise ship has docked this year at the sleek, 21,000-square-foot building near the Renaissance Center — an improvement from zero in 2014. The Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority building, meanwhile, gets plenty of party use by its caterer, Troy-based Continental Services.

1 comment:

Andrew_M_Garland said...

You don't understand Progressive economics.

Spending is important. Spending generates prosperity of 1.5 to 5 times the amount spent. Spent dollars circulate, producing wealth like fairy dust falling from a sprite. Just building the facility has made us all richer.

Income from the facility would be a burden on everyone, cancelling out the value created by the spending. Income removes dollars from the economy and puts them into already dead investments such as this facility.

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I think the above is sarcasm. It is clearly wrong. But, is it really sarcasm when all layers of government believe it is true? It is official government policy, so it isn't sarcasm. It is political truth.