Macomb Today

A Whitmer appointee spent $4,500 of taxpayer money to buy a coffeemaker after receiving a $20 million state grant to start a business accelerator. This was not an industrial coffee machine but a high-end Jura model with optional cup warmer and milk cooler available to consumers at Williams Sonoma.

Additionally, the appointee spent $11,000 on a first-class plane ticket to Europe, over $40,000 on furniture, and $408,000 for three months' salary for herself and one employee. These expenditures were not detected by internal financial controls; they came to light due to reporting by The Detroit News.

Attorney General Dana Nessel has since opened an investigation, and both the House and Senate have voted to withdraw the remaining funding.

This situation has prompted calls for Michigan to offer bounties to reporters and news organizations that save taxpayers money by exposing corruption. "Local journalism is dying," said an unnamed source. "We need an informed population and independent watchdogs keeping an eye on what the government is doing."

Some advocate for government-funded news outlets. However, critics argue that this could compromise newsroom independence. Offering bounties could provide reporters with incentives while maintaining their autonomy. In this case, if the state recovers the unspent portion of the already disbursed $10 million and cancels the rest of the grant, taxpayers might save approximately $19 million. Ten percent of that ($1.9 million) could be awarded to The Detroit News and its reporters who uncovered the scandal.

The federal government already offers rewards to whistleblowers, and Silicon Valley uses bug bounties as cost-effective measures to find vulnerabilities before exploitation occurs. Applying similar principles here could yield benefits.

There are practical issues such as determining bounty recipients since impactful stories often unfold in phases with multiple contributors adding new information over time.

The Detroit News has been covering this story extensively since 2022 when the budget was approved. Their reporting included details like Attorney General Nessel's investigation being initiated following an FBI referral.

Questions remain about why these funds were allocated initially. The deal was secretly negotiated by a former Republican lawmaker alongside Gov. Whitmer, even though the organization receiving funding did not exist when it was included in the budget.

Gov. Whitmer has yet to explain her approval of allocating $20 million in the budget for her political appointee who served on the Michigan Economic Development Corporation board at that time—a clear conflict of interest given MEDC’s role in overseeing these grants.

"I cannot say what happened because I wasn’t serving in office then," stated another source, "but if we offered a bounty, more news organizations would have an incentive to press for answers."