FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
May 27, 2025
Contact: Denzel McCampbell, (313) 400-0298, denzel@progressmichigan.org
A Welcome Message for Mackinac Policy Conference: ‘Fudge the Billionaires, Fund the People’
Progress Michigan’s mobile billboard contrasts optics of week-long lobbyfest with urgency for economic justice
MACKINAW CITY, Mich. – In an effort to welcome the corporate lobbyists, lawmakers, and their rich friends to the annual Mackinac Policy Conference, Progress Michigan reserved a mobile billboard around departing ferry docks – with an homage to decadent Mackinac Island fudge – to shine a light on the wealth inequality plaguing our state and the leaders attending the conference who choose to ignore it. The following statement can be attributed to Sam Inglot, executive director of Progress Michigan:
“The rich are getting richer while working families are struggling to feed their families and keep the lights on, but in the fantasy world that is the Mackinac Policy Conference everything is just hunky-dory. We’re now living in a new Gilded Age – a time of excess for the few and economic and political corruption – and it’s more important than ever to call out the root of the problem: billionaires and the lawmakers who enable them.
“Mackinac Policy Conference this year is adorned with sponsorships from corporate behemoths like DTE Energy and Enbridge and features speakers including billionaires themselves like Dan Gilbert. Meanwhile, leaders attending this year’s conference will make important public policy decisions on an island that’s out of reach for the vast majority of the public. Whose side are they really on?
“Michiganders need to be loud and clear with our demands: ‘Fudge the billionaires, fund the people.’”
An image of the billboard design is below.
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