I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
A controversial deal to build a film studio in an abandoned manufacturing facility in Grand Rapids has run into another controversy.
Hangar42 has been in the sights of the conservative Mackinac Center since Gov. Jennifer Granholm pointed at the deal in her State of the State address. Since that time, the center has raised issues about the value of the property and the resulting tax credit the company stands to get. Property records show the property was purchased for less than $10 million, and while some work has been done on the property, a Grand Rapids Press review found the property’s improvements could not possibly equal the property’s estimated value in rebate requests of $40 million.
Under the tax rebate, the company, West Michigan Films, stands to bring in $10 million — or 25 percent of the property value — from the deal.
It has also raised issues about the company’s failure to pay contractors for construction work done on the property.
Now comes word that an aide to state Rep. Robert Dean (D-Grand Rapids) gave a speech in Chicago outlining a very similar property deal to the Hangar42 controversy and telling the audience of Muslims the project was “one I am doing now.”
Noah Seifullah, the aide to Dean, is quoted in an audio that surfaced on YouTube by the Press, and has since been removed, as saying:
“I’m buying a building from one of my partners for $50 million,” Seifullah says in the recording. “To get the building costs us $4 million. The 20 percent tax credit will provide us with $12.5 million. So how much the building cost us?
“We made a profit off the state — and you get the $12.5 million when you sign the paper.”
Seifullah has ties to developer Robert Buchanan, who is selling the property on a $40 million land contract to former Steelcase executive Joe Peters and “unnamed investors.”
The Democratic aide denies he has any financial ties with the project.
Dean has also announced he has directed Seifullah to work with the Film Office and Hangar42 officials to iron out the delay in credits, reports the Press.
Since the controversy has erupted, the Michigan Film Office and the Treasury Department have refused to comment on the tax credit application, citing the confidentiality of tax records.
But an email by Film Office Director Jan Lockwood was released under a Michigan Freedom of Information Act request, in which she tells the Michigan Economic Development Corporation colleagues she is willing to take the blame for the deal.
“They’ve not received a penny but perception is all. If it will help I’m happy to claim fault and deflect it from the front office,” Lockwood’s email said, reports the Press. “So disappointing, it looked promising. But it’s not. This time I’m agreeing with the Mac Center.”
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