Meet the Slumlord Billionaire

For years, Ambassador Bridge CEO Matty Moroun has “invested” in Michigan. Take the Michigan Central Depot, for example. This famous Detroit landmark has sat empty and graffiti-riddled for more than two decades.

But Moroun’s “beautification” scheme doesn’t end there. This billionaire slumlord owns countless unsafe, unoccupied and dilapidated properties throughout Detroit, a sure way to discourage jobs and investments from coming to Michigan. But why would Moroun care about job creation when he can just get rich on the backs of ordinary people and pay off Lansing politicians so he can get even richer?

Moroun’s latest scheme: paying more than $1.5 million in the last election cycle alone to legislators in Lansing to derail the construction of a new publicly owned international bridge to Canada. This bridge will be built at no cost to Michigan taxpayers. It will create up to 10,000 new bridge construction jobs, 30,000 additional spin-off jobs and, because it will also bring in federal road and bridge improvement money, up to 60,000 extra jobs throughout Michigan. That’s up to 100,000 jobs in total being held up because of one rich CEO’s greed.

Moroun’s motivation is simple: He wants to make sure his privately-owned, aging and inadequate Ambassador Bridge remains the only crossing in town. Less competition means more profits for Moroun.

Moroun’s not alone in his profit-padding scheme. From 2009 to 2010, CEO pay and benefit levels skyrocketed 23 percent. While powerful corporate actors get richer and richer, and see tax break after tax break, regular people in Michigan are struggling to find jobs and keep their heads above water.

It’s clear that Michigan’s economy isn’t working for regular people who work hard and play by the rules – and it doesn’t seem like our elected officials are doing much to stand in Moroun’s way and instead fight for the middle class.

Instead of obstructing jobs, our leaders should be creating them. And instead of allowing slumlord billionaires like Moroun to turn our cities into symbols of disrepair and despair, we should be rebuilding them. In tough times like these, we can’t afford to pick winners and losers in our economy. We can, however, invest in projects like the new bridge to Canada, which are guaranteed to provide the new jobs and investments our state desperately needs.

It’s time to hold rich CEOs like Moroun accountable for their actions and put Michigan families back to work. Obstructing a job-creating project like the New International Trade Crossing is not the way to help Michigan’s middle class, and it’s certainly not the way to put Michigan on the road to recovery. We must make our state’s economy work again – for everyone, not just a chosen few.

Michigan citizens should be very concerned about this slumlord billionaire and his payoff to politicians for his personal profits. It’s time to tell politicians in the Legislature to put Michigan jobs, Michigan families and Michigan’s future ahead of one rich CEO’s profits.