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« HYPE ON THE HILL | Main | CORRECTION! CORRECTION! CORRECTION! »

Jun 03, 2005

HYPE ON THE HILL, CONTINUED

Gr_press_logo_3I finish posting the article below, and I see that the Grand Rapids Press is at it again flacking for the Van Andel Institute on its editorial page.  On Thursday the Press stumped for the State Senate Republican bill for a $1 billion bond to fund "life sciences" business development in Michigan, which is in opposition to Guv Jen's $2 billion spending spree on high technology jobs.

Of course, both proposals are nuts.  They are an utter waste of our taxes.  These give-aways are welfare to wannabe entrepeneurs who can't convince private investors to fund them.  If the financiers who make a living out of betting on risky business ventures won't invest in Michigan's bio-tech future, how does anyone justify spending the hard earned dollars of ordinary taxpayers on infrastructure and investment for it?

Well, we know where the Press is coming from.  Publisher Danny Gaydou is a big fan of pyramid-builders Rich DeVos and the late Jay Van Andel.  Jay's big project, the Van Andel Institute, needs a lot of other people's money to keep on chugging along, now that it appears his estate won't be supporting it.  The current game is bio-tech, or better yet the rather vaporously defined "life sciences".  So that's the buzzword the VAI is now betting on after failing to successfully shake the money tree first for nutrition research, then cancer, and recently homeland defense over its five short years of existence.

Therefore, Gaydou's Press is pulling out the stops to support public spending on "life sciences" for the benefit of the VAI.

So e-mail Gaydou and ask him:  If "life sciences" development is such a good way to spend our tax dollars, why aren't Jay Van Andel's heirs making any public commitment of their fortune to it?

Posted by Wm Tingley on Jun 03, 2005 at 11:10 AM in Local Media |

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