GOP state lawmaker wants reporters to get bonuses for finding wasteful spending
FOX 2 (WJBK) - Any reporter who uncovers the state government's waste of tax dollars could collect a bounty from the state - which is what one lawmaker is proposing.
Fay Beydoun was a member of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Executive Committee and secured a grant of $20 million from the MEDC for a nonprofit.
And with $4,500, she purchased a coffee maker for the non-profit organization.
State Rep. Joe Aragona (R-Macomb County) says the state did not discover that spending, but a Detroit News reporter did.
"There is no internal control in Michigan with state government that found it," said State Rep. Joe Aragona (R). "Who found it? It was a news source. So you know what I think we need to do? We need to have a bounty."
Aragona is drafting legislation that pay reporters who uncover this alleged kind of waste.
"If a news source finds a waste of taxpayer money that has been frivolously spent like that, in a manner that shouldn't be, then the news source, I believe, needs to get a cut - maybe 10 percent," he said.
But at the Michigan Press Association, there was not an immediate embrace of the bounty concept. There are concerns that the program might be politicized.
Another source confides, what would the taxpayers think about reporters getting paid more for doing a job they are getting salaries for, already.
The representative reports he has a number of co-sponsors for his proposals. Then the bounty may be up for a vote.
