Michigan congressman secures taxpayer money for his own private shooting club
Lansing — The Democratic-led Legislature’s $83 billion budget, passed just before dawn Thursday morning, includes more than $400 million in funding for lawmakers’ pet projects, including a $425,000 grant to a private gun club owned by a lawmaker who helped secure the grant.
The nonprofit Bridgeport Gun Club worked with the district’s state representative, Rep. Amos O’Neal, D-Saginaw, to secure taxpayer funds to build an indoor pistol range, club President Joann Smith said.
O’Neal has been a member for several years, she said. The pistol range, Smith said, is for the club’s roughly 400 members and their guests, but she said the club also offers training in hunting safety and concealed pistol licensing to the broader public southwest of Saginaw.
“I just want the kids today to know that you can handle it, but do it the right way,” Smith said of the club’s outreach efforts on safe firearm handling.
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O’Neal, co-chair of the bipartisan Michigan Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, said he has long worked to make hunting, fishing, outdoor activities and conservation efforts accessible to young people, including through scholarships for minority youth and gun safety education.
O’Neal argued that adding an indoor pistol range to the gun club would also expand the club’s ability to reach youth, despite the fact that the club is private. The club’s website states that it is “committed to protecting wildlife and natural resources” and that it is occasionally opened for events to the public, Boy Scouts, veterans, police officers and schools.
“The goal of any outdoor industry I’m involved in is to always involve young people so they can learn and gain experience,” O’Neal told The Detroit News. “It’s no different than teaching kids how to play golf at a private golf course.”
The funding for the Bridgeport Gun Club comes after the Democratic-led legislature passed a series of gun laws last year, including a new law requiring handgun owners to securely store their firearm at home when children are present.
The grant is one of dozens of pet projects lawmakers added to the annual budget Wednesday night, hours before they cast final votes around 5 a.m. Thursday morning at the end of a marathon 19-hour session. Other projects benefitting from millions of taxpayer dollars include several sports facilities, a land purchase on Mackinac Island, a radio station in Detroit and the installation of public Wi-Fi in Detroit’s Greektown.
Republican- and Democratic-led legislatures have been criticized for their excessive spending on special items that traditionally benefit a lawmaker’s constituency but have proven beneficial to campaign donors and political insiders in recent years. The pet projects can be used as a form of horse-trading to secure votes for the budget and allow lawmakers to boast about winning funds tailored specifically to their constituency.
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Typically, projects are announced to the public just hours before the budget is passed; and even then, it can take months to determine exactly who received the grants, who the legislator responsible is, and what the connection is between the recipient and the funder.
GOP lawmakers attack subsidies
Several Republican lawmakers criticized the spending on this pet project in statements on Thursday.
Republican Rep. Ann Bollin of Brighton Township said the budget would target essential services by eliminating state contributions to the health fund for retired teachers, reducing school safety and mental health, and neglecting local roads.
“It funds political projects and social programs while neglecting critical areas such as infrastructure, public safety and other essential government services,” Bollin said in a statement.
Republican Rep. John Roth of Interlochen argued that the projects were largely concentrated in the Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids areas, with only 12 of them located in the north.
“We don’t want special treatment, but we do want Northern Michigan to receive the same dedicated funding as places like Detroit and Grand Rapids,” Roth said in a statement.
In contrast, House and Senate budget leaders celebrated the budget in statements early Thursday morning. Senate Budget Committee Chair Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) and House Budget Committee Chair Angela Witwer (D-Delta Township) argued the budget will make the state stronger and more resilient.
The Lansing-area districts represented by Anthony and Witwer have apparently received at least $60 million for pet projects.
“These investments lay the foundation for real improvements to local infrastructure and create strong hometowns for Michigan residents,” Witwer said.
An initial review of the budget passed Thursday found that the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity is allocating nearly 200 line items totaling more than $335 million and the Department of Transportation is allocating a total of $74.5 million for 30 key infrastructure projects.
How much money will be diverted from additional appropriations in other departments’ budgets was unclear Thursday, but LEO and MDOT’s budgets typically include the most pet projects.
Where the money went
Nearly a dozen sports facilities will receive huge cash infusions as part of the new state budget. Recipients include Lansing Lugnuts Stadium, which will receive $1 million for infrastructure improvements, and Jimmy John’s Field in Utica, home of the United Shore Professional Baseball League, which will receive $1.5 million.
The Downtown Boxing Gym in Detroit, a frequent recipient of annual grants, will receive $2 million; the Berston Field House in Flint, another frequent grant recipient, will receive $3 million.
An indoor sports facility in Shelby Township will receive $2.5 million, a youth sports complex in Frankenmuth will receive $10 million, the winter sports complex in Muskegon will receive $1.5 million, the Sault Ste. Marie I-500 snowmobile track will receive $250,000 and ski jumps near Ironwood and Iron Mountain will receive $1 million.
According to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency, $3 million is also earmarked for a “sports complex in West Michigan.” However, the House budget documents do not indicate where this facility will be located.
The Potter Park Zoo in Lansing will receive $10 million, a downtown redevelopment project in Mount Clemens will receive $5 million, and a downtown development in Jackson will receive $4.5 million.
About $3.2 million will go toward “land acquisition” on Mackinac Island, $1 million will go to Detroit’s public radio station, $300,000 will go toward “public Wi-Fi” in the Greektown neighborhood in downtown Detroit, and $4 million will go toward polling places in East Lansing, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Lansing.
Museums receiving funding include the Motown Museum in Detroit with $5 million, the Lakeshore Museum Center in Muskegon with $2 million, the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield with $1 million and the Michigan Flight Museum in Van Buren Township with $1 million.
More: Earmark bonanza: $335 million allocated in spending bills for Michigan projects
The Grand Rapids Public Museum, which regularly receives grants for its favorite projects, will receive one million dollars.
The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Imagery at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, which also frequently receives special federal grants, will receive a $4 million grant.
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