Flint Talk

05/28/2026

FOLLOW THE MONEY
Everything Leads Back To Whitmer

FLINT, MI — Flint Talk took a closer look at some of Michigan’s biggest controversies involving taxpayer money, state policies, political appointments, corporate subsidies, and fraud cases tied to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration since 2019. The investigation examines where billions of dollars went, who benefited, and how many Michigan residents were affected by the decisions.

COVID NURSING HOME DEATHS

Michigan faced major backlash during the pandemic after COVID positive patients were placed into nursing homes housing elderly residents. More than 1,900 deaths were linked to outbreaks in long term care facilities while operators continued receiving funding tied to occupied beds.

COVID LOCKDOWNS

Thousands of Michigan small businesses were forced to shut down or severely limit operations during statewide lockdowns while major national chains remained open. Critics argued the restrictions devastated local businesses while large corporations and online retailers saw record profits.

FAY BEYDOUN CONTROVERSY

Businesswoman and Whitmer supporter Fay Beydoun became the center of a criminal investigation tied to a state funded grant program. Prosecutors alleged taxpayer money was connected to luxury spending including high priced travel, expensive office purchases, and other questionable expenses. The case resulted in multiple felony charges.

NKECHY EZEH FRAUD CASE

Former Whitmer appointee Nkechy Ezeh was sentenced in federal court after being accused of stealing more than $1.4 million tied to preschool education programs intended for children and families.

$8.5 BILLION UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD

Michigan’s unemployment system was overwhelmed during the pandemic as criminal rings exploited the system for fraudulent claims. Investigators estimated the losses reached $8.5 billion, making it one of the largest fraud scandals in Michigan history.

LINE 5 PIPELINE BATTLE

The Whitmer administration attempted to shut down the Line 5 pipeline, which supplies a large percentage of Michigan’s propane and fuel needs. Critics warned the move could create major economic consequences and higher energy costs across the state.

SOLAR FARM LAW

Michigan lawmakers approved changes limiting local control over large scale solar projects. More than seventy communities challenged the law, arguing local zoning authority was stripped away in favor of state level approvals benefiting major developers.

DTE AND CONSUMERS RATE HIKES

DTE and Consumers Energy received approval for more than $1 billion in utility rate increases while political donations and campaign support tied to state leadership continued drawing criticism from opponents who questioned the relationship between regulators and utility companies.

GAS TAX INCREASES

Michigan drivers saw fuel taxes rise sharply over the past several years. Critics argued the increased costs generated billions in additional state revenue while residents continued dealing with high fuel prices and ongoing road complaints.

SOAR FUND SUBSIDIES

Michigan committed billions in corporate subsidy spending through the SOAR Fund program to attract large projects and employers. Critics pointed to the high cost per job created and questioned whether taxpayers received enough value in return for the incentives.

GOTION BATTERY PROJECT

The proposed Gotion battery project became one of Michigan’s most controversial economic development deals after concerns were raised over foreign ties, taxpayer incentives, and local opposition. Millions in public money were connected to the project before portions of the development stalled.

MA*****NA TAX EXPANSION

Michigan’s ma*****na industry faced additional tax pressure after lawmakers approved a new wholesale level cannabis tax tied to road funding. Business owners warned the added costs could hurt smaller operators already struggling in a competitive market.

With billions of taxpayer dollars involved, rising costs across Michigan, multiple fraud investigations, and years of controversial policies still being debated, many voters are now asking one question heading into November: where did all the money really go?

05/28/2026

In a deeply personal Flint Film Foundation Podcast interview, 810 Munchies founder Steve Brewer opens up about growing up in Flint, hard work, autism advocacy, family struggles, and the experiences that helped shape both his life and the mission behind 810 Munchies. Hosted by Melissa of the Flint Film Foundation, the nearly two hour conversation mixes humor, emotional moments, and honest storytelling, with Melissa’s infectious interviewing style and laugh helping pull stories and emotions out of Brewer that make the interview feel real, personal, and unscripted. Both 810 Munchies and the Flint Film Foundation podcast studio are located inside the Dort Mall off Dort Highway in Flint. Click the link in the description to watch the full YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P025CyVOvHo

05/28/2026

The Story Before 810 Munchies Steve Brewer Opens Up In Flint Film Foundation YouTube Interview

FLINT, MI — A new YouTube interview from the Flint Film Foundation is giving viewers one of the most personal, funny, emotional, and revealing looks yet at the man behind 810 Munchies.

In the nearly two hour episode titled “Flint Film Foundation Podcast | Steve Brewer talks Food, Flint, Hard Work and Finding Your Cheese!”, Melissa from the Flint Film Foundation sits down with Steve Brewer for a conversation that quickly turns into much more than an interview about food or running a restaurant.

Watch the full interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P025CyVOvHo

Rather than feeling like a formal podcast, the interview feels more like sitting at a table listening to longtime friends talk honestly about life, Flint, autism awareness, hard work, family struggles, relationships, philosophy, and the strange road that eventually led to 810 Munchies.

One of the things that makes the interview stand out is Melissa herself. Her personality naturally pulls stories out of Brewer that probably would not come out in a standard interview setting. Throughout the conversation, Melissa mixes humor, emotional honesty, and curiosity in a way that keeps the nearly two hour video moving without ever feeling stiff or scripted.

At several points, the two are laughing like old friends sitting around a kitchen table.

Other moments become surprisingly emotional.

The conversation moves through stories about growing up in Flint, leaving home young, working while still in school, raising nonverbal children, and the emotional pressure many families quietly carry every day while trying to navigate autism and public life.

Melissa also shares observations from her own experiences around 810 Munchies, including watching families come into the restaurant during difficult sensory moments and realizing how differently the environment feels compared to most public places.

The interview also touches on how the guys behind Flint Talk, Steve Myers and John Wilson, helped give Brewer and his wife Mackenzie Brewer an outlet during one of the hardest periods of their lives after a school incident involving one of their children. During the interview, Brewer explains that those early podcast discussions eventually helped launch the Autism Parent Support Network, which later became part of the foundation behind 810 Munchies itself.

What makes the interview interesting is that it never stays in one lane very long.

One minute the conversation is serious. The next minute Melissa and Brewer are joking with each other about life inside the Dort Mall, family dynamics, emotional support humans, community personalities, or random stories from Flint history.

The chemistry between the two gives the interview a very natural feeling that makes it easy to keep watching.

For viewers who only know 810 Munchies through social media posts, community dinners, or restaurant visits, the interview offers a much deeper look into the people, philosophy, and personal experiences behind it all.

And for people who think they already know Steve Brewer, the interview reveals there is a lot more to the story before 810 Munchies ever opened its doors.

The full interview is available now on YouTube through the Flint Film Foundation Podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P025CyVOvHo

05/28/2026

FOLLOW THE MONEY
Everything Leads Back To Whitmer

FLINT, MI — Flint Talk took a closer look at some of Michigan’s biggest controversies involving taxpayer money, state policies, political appointments, corporate subsidies, and fraud cases tied to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration since 2019. The investigation examines where billions of dollars went, who benefited, and how many Michigan residents were affected by the decisions.

05/26/2026

15 Minutes to a Greater Understanding: What Happened During the 400 Silent Years?

05/26/2026

Interview with Leon Van Rooyen, The Dutchman

05/26/2026

The Whitmer Effect: Higher Taxes Fewer Jobs Less Opportunity

LANSING, MI — Michigan is losing jobs, residents, businesses, farmland, and opportunity while families continue facing higher costs and growing economic pressure. Critics say Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s policies have created a business climate where companies leave, workers relocate, and opportunities disappear.

Governor Whitmer Has Drained Michigan Of

• 8.8K net payroll jobs in the past year
• A $9 billion state surplus
• 68,000 residents from 2020 through 2024
• 14 Fortune 500 companies, nearly half the state’s total
• 40,500 undergraduate students from Michigan colleges
• Reading proficiency for 57,000 fourth graders in 2025
• $4 billion to $6 billion in taxable income shifted to other states
• 28,000 manufacturing jobs
• 100,000 acres of farmland in 2024 alone

Why Are People And Businesses Leaving?

• Higher taxes making Michigan less competitive
• Regulations making it harder to operate businesses
• Rising energy costs tied to green energy mandates
• Workforce shortages and a shrinking population
• A declining business climate driving companies elsewhere

Questions Many Michiganders Are Asking

• Where did the $9 billion surplus go?
• Why are Fortune 500 companies leaving Michigan?
• Why are 57,000 fourth graders not reading at grade level?
• Why is college enrollment collapsing?
• Why are farmers losing 100,000 acres of farmland?
• Why are manufacturing jobs disappearing?
• Why are residents and businesses moving to other states?

What Michigan Needs

• Lower taxes to compete with other states
• Reduced regulations on businesses and manufacturers
• Investment in education and workforce development
• Support for agriculture and manufacturing industries
• Affordable and reliable energy costs
• Leadership focused on creating reasons for people and companies to stay

For many frustrated residents, the numbers tell the story. Michigan is losing jobs, losing residents, losing businesses, and losing opportunity while costs continue rising. Critics say the Whitmer effect is becoming impossible to ignore.

05/26/2026

The Whitmer effect is higher taxes, rising costs, job losses, businesses leaving Michigan, population decline, struggling schools, and fewer economic opportunities under Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s leadership. Michigan now faces a troubling reality as thousands of payroll jobs disappear, Fortune 500 companies leave the state, and college and K through 12 enrollment continue to fall. Critics blame tax policies, heavy regulations, and rising energy costs for driving businesses, workers, and opportunity out of Michigan. Many now argue the state needs tax relief, workforce investment, and leadership focused on rebuilding Michigan’s economic foundation before even more people and companies leave.

05/25/2026

What if Memorial Day was never supposed to be about burgers, beaches, and three day weekends? What if one of America’s biggest travel holidays actually began in the aftermath of one of the deadliest wars in U.S. history?

What if Memorial Day was never supposed to be about burgers, beaches, and three day weekends? What if one of America’s biggest travel holidays actually began...

05/25/2026

Whitmer's Tax Spree Is Costing Your Family Up to $900 a Year — While She Refuses to Give You a Break at the Pump

By Flint Talk Staff

Gas is near $5 a gallon. Other states are suspending their gas taxes to give families relief. Gretchen Whitmer just said no — again. Meanwhile, she's already hit you with the highest EV registration fees in the country ($267/year), buried a 24% tax on ma*****na in the roads bill, jacked the gas tax from 31 to 52.4 cents a gallon, and signed off on business tax hikes that businesses are passing straight to you at the register. Add it all up and the typical Michigan family is paying $450 to over $900 more every single year — money that could have gone to your kids, your summer, your family. Instead, it's going to Lansing.

As summer kicks off and families try to stretch every dollar, it's worth asking: how much has Whitmer's Lansing actually cost you? Because it isn't just one tax. It's a pile-on — and it's been building for years.

The Gas Tax Redesign: You're Paying More, Period

On January 1, 2026, Lansing eliminated the 6% sales tax on fuel and replaced it with a flat 52.4-cent-per-gallon tax — up from 31 cents. They sold it as revenue-neutral. It isn't. The math only breaks even when gas is at $3.50 a gallon. When gas was hovering around $2.90 this past winter, you were paying more in taxes than you would have under the old system. Now that prices are spiking toward $5, the formula finally tips in drivers' favor — but that 52.4-cent tax is locked in forever, indexed to inflation, and it will never go down. You don't get a refund for the months you overpaid.

She Vetoed Your Gas Tax Holiday — Twice

In 2022, when gas hit $5.22 a gallon, the Michigan legislature passed a bipartisan 6-month gas tax holiday. Whitmer vetoed it. That veto cost Michigan families $725 million in relief. Now in 2026, with gas near $5 again, Indiana, Utah, and Georgia have all suspended their gas taxes to give drivers a break. Whitmer says she supports a federal gas tax holiday — but she won't touch Michigan's. Her excuse? The roads need the money. The same roads she just raised your gas tax to fix. Meanwhile, you're paying $70 to fill your tank and wondering whether you can afford to take your kids anywhere this summer.

EV Fees: Michigan Is Now #1 — For All the Wrong Reasons

If you bought an electric vehicle to save money, Lansing has a surprise for you. Thanks to a formula triggered by the same road funding deal that hiked the gas tax, EV registration fees jumped from $160 to $267 a year — a 67% increase in a single year. Michigan now has the highest EV registration surcharge in the entire nation. The national average is around $100. We're at $267. Plug-in hybrid owners got hit too, jumping from $60 to $113 annually. You bought into the future they told you to buy into. Now they're charging you extra for it.

The Ma*****na Tax Nobody Voted For

When Michigan voters legalized recreational ma*****na in 2018, they approved a 10% excise tax plus the standard 6% sales tax. That was the deal. Last fall, Whitmer signed a budget that added a brand-new 24% wholesale tax on top of that — buried inside the roads bill. The state expects to collect $420 million a year from it. The cannabis industry immediately sued, arguing the tax illegally amended a voter-approved ballot initiative without the required supermajority. The courts let it stand anyway. The tax went live January 1, 2026. Dispensaries are absorbing what they can, but prices are going up. If you're a medical patient spending $250 a month on ma*****na to manage pain or illness, you could be paying $450 more a year because of a tax you never voted for.

Line 5: Years of Uncertainty, and You're Paying for It

Since 2020, Whitmer has been waging a legal war to shut down the Line 5 pipeline — the pipeline that supplies 65% of the Upper Peninsula's propane and fuels energy across the region. The pipeline is still running, but the years of political posturing and legal battles have created massive market uncertainty. Energy markets don't like uncertainty. They price it in. The hundreds of thousands of Michigan families who heat their homes with propane have been paying an elevated "uncertainty premium" for years because of this fight. And once energy prices go up, they don't come back down. The battle is still in the courts as of this summer, with no end in sight.

Business Taxes: You're Paying Those Too

The same budget that brought you the ma*****na tax also "decoupled" Michigan's tax code from federal business tax breaks — effectively raising taxes on Michigan employers by nearly $680 million in the first year alone. Businesses don't eat those costs. They pass them to you in the form of higher prices on everything you buy. That's roughly $270 in hidden, indirect costs hitting a typical family of four every year. You'll never see a line item for it on your receipt. It just quietly makes everything more expensive.

The Bottom Line

Add it all up — the gas tax redesign, the vetoed tax holidays, the nation-leading EV fees, the ma*****na wholesale tax, the business tax hike passed to consumers — and the typical working-class family in Genesee County is paying $450 to over $900 more every year because of decisions made in Lansing. If you own an EV and use cannabis, you're looking at close to $1,000 a year.

That's money that could have gone to your kids' school supplies, a summer road trip, a family cookout, a month of groceries. Instead, it went to Lansing. And Whitmer wants credit for fixing the roads.

Are the roads fixed yet?

05/25/2026

With Memorial Day marking the official start of summer, Michigan families are hitting the road facing nearly $5 a gallon for gas, and no relief from Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Between Michigan’s new 52.4 cent per gallon gas tax and other taxes and fees coming out of Lansing, families are paying more every time they fill up. Putting even 54 cents back into drivers’ pockets on every gallon could make a real difference for families trying to afford vacations, groceries, and everyday bills this summer. While other states suspended gas taxes to help drivers, Whitmer locked Michigan into a permanent gas tax structure that stays high even when fuel prices fall. EV registration fees also skyrocketed, new ma*****na taxes were buried into road funding, and Lansing keeps finding new ways to squeeze working families already struggling with inflation. Many Michigan families are now asking the same question: if Lansing keeps taking more money out of their pockets, where is the relief they were promised?