We need to be really careful with the words "Taxpayer Funding".

Is the funding a gift? Or is it a loan to be repaid?
If the funding is not a loan, who will be the final owner of the asset?
Is it taxpayers from the general fund? Or is it taxpayers inside of downtown?

I'm not taking a side [[at least right here) regarding this specific project. What I can tell you is that a lot of people hear "taxpayer funding" and think that someone living over on 6 and Livernois is writing a check to a billionaire's pocket.

That may or may not be the case.

If the city uses X Million dollars to purchase a building that they will *own*, and then they turn around and rent that building to a company, that is *not* the same thing as writing a check to the company so that the company can own the building.

There are good [[generally hyper-conservative) arguments saying that the city shouldn't own or lend to projects. There are fair points to be made there. Just know that this isn't as simple as saying that Mike Duggan just wrote a million dollar check to Mike Illitch and Tom Gores using taxes collected from poor people. That's just straight up incorrect.