Fiscal Rangers

James O'Keefe of Project Veritas was just fired by the Board. This is his final statement to the staff today, Feb. 20, 2023

James O'keefe spent 49 minutes today, Feb. 20, 2023 explaining in a video the entire, not well known, train of events leading to his departure from his investigative watchdog group Project Veritas. It happened strangely forced by a hostile Board just days after their huge expose of the Pfizer executive admitting apparent improper actions related to their Covid vaccines.   Read more →

Texas Election Integrity voters combine efforts, plan big TX Legislators full day briefing on Jan. 24

Conservative Texas vlogger Debbie Georgatos of AmericaCanWeTalk.com had a great video segment on Rumble on Jan. 12, 2023, explaining a growing TexasFirst.org movement to uncover and document election integrity issues and get legislative changes to improve election integrity. Read about the event and get the links here. Read more →

Dirty Politics in Florida's Congressional District 11 Republican Primaries

A couple in the Villages, FL supporting Dan Webster for US Congressional District 11 formed a PAC and funded attack ads against Republican Laura Loomer. BUT, they also approached a third Republican candidate, Gavriel Sorviano, and asked if he would quit the race and endorse Webster. He refused and told his story to VoxPopuli, which printed an expose, which is the source for our story. Read more →

Lora Lumer (you know who we mean), candidate for Florida US House District 11, spoke on July, 12, 2022 at the Villagers for Trump

Lora Lumer (you know who we mean - Laura Loomer), candidate for Florida US House District 11, spoke on July, 12, 2022 at the Villagers for Trump where opponent Daniel Webster did not show up, and here is their video. Another opponent who attended and spoke was Gavriel Rosario.  Incumbent US Congressman Dan Webster, could not attend. Read more →

The Movie Rigged2020 is out, which documents how Zuckerbucks stole the 2020 Election for Byden

The movie "Rigged2020" is out online. It documents how Facebook Founder Mark Z. helped Byden steal the 2020 election. Read more →

Florida 2020 voter registration database analysis shows questionable fluctuations. Did ERIC Cause it?

2020 Florida voter registration analysis and questionable fluctuations in different party registration volumes are shown in this 10-minute video of the Florida statewide voter registration database. Also, could there be a pattern of fake registrations? Speculation is that Florida's membership in "ERIC" may be the reason. Go to the Rumble channel to see the 10 minute video. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →

We interview Tom Vail about apparent manipulation of Florida Voter Registrations and Vote Counts

We interviewed Tom Vail, a vote integrity activist in Lake County, FL about evidence uncovered from analysis of Florida's 2020 elections vote dtabase (15-million voters) and suspicious trends found in voter registration data as well as mysterious appearance of Democrat and NPA registrations to match Republican counts. Then there was the database analysis showing ALL Florida addressses where more than 10 voters were registered, with some having 9000 or more registered voters to a single adddress. FAKE???? Read more →

Police Chief & Two others "mis-appropriate" $80,000 from tiny city in Oklahoma

Elected government officials can learn from reported cases of fraud in local government. This link is to a story where a police chief and two others in the small town of Tryon, OK, population 500, embezzled over $80,000 over several years. The city's total annual budget was about $200,000. One lesson is that the elected officials apparently didn't exercise any type of oversight on the spending. "Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd released her audit of the town of Tryon, between Stillwater and Chandler, on Thursday. She identified a total of $95,000 in misappropriated town funds via unauthorized and personal charges, according to a news release." Funds were withdrawn from city accounts via local casinos "In her audit, Byrd faulted not only the employees who benefited from the misappropriations but also the governing board for the town." "This "Town" Board was just asleep at the wheel." The Police Chief, Jered Pricket, is alleged to have made most of the personal transactions, including $3,700 in "questionable credit card expenditures," including deer hunting supplies. The "misappropriation" was 13% of Tryon's annual budget. “Donations made to the Tryon Police Department, totaling $3,960, were not deposited into the Town’s bank account,” Byrd wrote... Read more →

Updated! Tavares City Council denied a proposed SIXTY FOOT HIGH apartment building at HWY 19 & Lane Park Cutoff

The City of Tavares, FL is planning to approve (maybe) a (A) government warehouse development that would be removed from the Tavares property tax rolls, and (B) a humongous SIXTY FOOT HIGH 165 unit apartment complex that will generate almost 1000 road trips a day when the Highway 19 is at 98% of road "volume capacity". BOTH projects would MODIFY the existing zoning and density standards for the area along Highway 19. Read more →

Tell your Tavares, FL City Council members to allow citizen input at FIRST Readings of Planning & Zoning items

The City Council of Tavares, FL does not allow citizens to provide public input on "First Readings" of agenda items on Planning & Zoning or other issues, thus they cannot provide input until the next meeting and the FINAL "Second Reading". No other city in Lake County has this restriction, so citizens should demand that public input be accepted at First Readings. Read more →

The Lake County, FL 5-member Legislative Delegation will listen TOMORROW to 50+ citizens requests for action, money and love

Tomorrow, Wed. Oct 6th, 2021 is the annual Lake County Legislative Delegation hearings being held at a new location, Venetian Center, 1 Dozier Circle, Leesburg, FL. It is when local citizens and organization officials spend 3-minutes to plead for actions from the 5 Lake County Florida legislation delegation: Senator Dennis Baxley, Senator Kelli Stargel, Anthony Sabatini, State Representative Keith Truenow and Brett T. Hage. Read more →

Texas Pediatrician rants about dangers of masks, Covid vaccines and lack of health improvement discussions - Debbie Georgatos show

Click HERE to see a Debbie Georgatos video interview on America Can We Talk of a 25-year Pediatrician, Dr. Angelina Farella, describing the DANGERS of masks, DANGERS of Covid vaccines and asking hard questions ike "why isn't anyone preaching good practices to BUILD immune systems, or good health to reduce OBESITY which is the main contributor to serious Covid Cases?" Debbie Georgatos is a well-known conservative vlogger in Texas who interviews many working professionals like doctors about the REAL FACTS related to issues like masks, Covid, election fraud, etc. Her main website is: https://americacanwetalk.org/. You will not support masks at all, or vaccines or the Biden regime's Covid rules after watching this America Can We Talk interview held by Debbie Georgatos on Sept. 15, 2021. https://rumble.com/vmmsft-dr.-angelina-farella-acwt-interview-9.15.21.html This is one of many sources I have gathered for my "Masks are dangerous.." webpage at: https://www.fiscalrangers.com/masks-are-dangerous-and-here-is-why.html By Vance Jochim - published Sept 17, 2021 Fiscalrangers.com [email protected] === Read more →

MASKS are Dangerous in our opinion and should not be mandated - FiscalRangers.com Factsheet

Contrary to advice of Dr. Anthony Faucie, the Biden Administration, WHO and the CDC, masks for students or adults are DANGEROUS in our opinion and we list the reasons and sources that you can use to make up your own mind. Read more →

Why Tavares, FL Taxpayers Don't get all the details on City Council decisions

The City of Tavares, Florida's City Council met yesterday, April 7, 2021. We describe how they are leaving important details related to Council decisions out of the online agenda packet, and they need to provide that online in the future. This is one of several Tavares practices that result in lower transparency than other Lake County, FL cities. Read more →

Masks Don't WORK in my opinion - This video explains a medical doctor's research

America's Frontline Doctors is composed of experienced medical doctors and researchers who provide FACTS about why masks are not safe and can be harmful. They oppose the Federal and Fauci recommendations to wear masks. Watch their video describing many sources of research which are eye-opening. You won't want to wear masks after watching this video. Read more →

REDUCE YOUR Lake County, FL Property Taxes by 50% by buying property in a low tax Lake County city

Buyers of residential, rental or commercial property in Lake County, FL can SAVE 50% on property taxes if they pick the right, low millage rate city in Lake County. This article describes the 2020 millage rates for all 14 cities plus the unincorporated Lake County areas so you can decide to buy in a LOW or HIGH property tax location. Read more →

Lady Lake FL Town Commissioners cut trash runs to only 1, hear PACE financing program, discuss drones and building heights

The Town Commissioners of Lady Lake, FL had two meetings on Oct. 19, 2020 and FiscalRangers.com wrote an overview and made a video of the meeting. Read more →

Lake County, FL Board to have final millage and budget hearing tomorrow, Sept. 29, 2020

The Lake County, FL Board is having the final State required meeting to approve millage rates and budgets which will result in higher property taxes due to higher valuations. We provide the meeting details and discuss the issue. Read more →

How Lake County, FL elected officials are flimflamming property taxpayers

A commentary in the Orlando Sentinel blasted most local City Councils and the County Board for trying to say they reduced property tax millage rates, but since they did not reduce them to the rollback rate, total actual taxes will go up significantly once those officials vote in September to NOT approve rollback rates. Confusing? Yes, so read my article and the linked commentary by Lauren Ritchie. Read more →

Don't Vote Early - Wait Until You See who mails out nasty mailers, then choose

Lake County Voters should delay their voting in the Lake County primary elections until closer to the final voting day. They need to do that to see if anyone sends out negative mailer hit pieces that may see unethical or inaccurate before finally deciding who to vote for. We point out two candidate races where negative mailers have already been mailed out, and who in our opinion "might" be advising them. Read more →

Doug Shields is running for Lake County, FL County Commission and here is our video.

This introductory video of Doug Shields, candidate for the Lake County, FL County Commission, District 1 was made at the Lake County Republican Party HQ on July 31, 2020 during their periodic "Coffee with the Republican Candidates" event. Mr. Shields is running against incumbent Tim Sullivan, and he has mailed out controversial mailers attacking Sullivan that Sullivan has rejected as being inaccurate. Candidate Sullivan has issued a rebuttal HERE. We don't like hit piece mailers so you need to see the rebuttal also. Doug's official candidate website is: https://shieldsforlake.com/ His Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Shieldsforlake/ Campaign email: [email protected] Look for other Lake County, FL area election candidate videos on this FiscalRangersFlorida YouTube channel. Additionally, you can find news on the elections and other Lake County government agency watchdog issues on our FiscalRangers.com blog and on our FiscalRangersLakeCounty Facebook Group. Video by Lake County, FL Fiscal Watchdog blogger Vance Jochim of FiscalRangers.com. The short link to this video is: https://youtu.be/_IfGLfNquOY Length of video is: 29 minutes Read more →

Clermont, FL Taxpayers protest City Council decisions and rampant development at City Hall

Citizens showed up at the Clermont City Hall on July 22, 2020 to wave signs and discuss issues with those passing by. Led by local Clermont watchdog Dani Page, the group waved signs for two hours. This is a 30 minute segment. Read more →

Liberty County, FL Supt. of Elections suspended by FL Gov. Ron DeSantis due to $40k fraud

The FL Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended an elected Supt. of Elections in tiny Liberty County, FL (near Tallahassee) for an alleged $40 in fraud (not voter or election fraud) AND Google search has suppressed finding any articles or news about it if you use their search engine. But, Bing found many recent articles. See my updates also. Read more →

Orlando Sentinel's Scott Maxwell asks that voters monitor LOCAL elections as much as National elections

Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell encouraged taxpayers to attend local city council and other local agency meetings to monitor what they are doing, and also monitor who are the best candidates for their local government agencies. Here are my additional ideas for reform of City Councils and policies. Read more →

Florida Government Misanagement Results in Excessive $7+million CEO income for taxpayer funded non-profit after contract abuse found

A small non-profit that received Florida taxpayer funds, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV), refused to disclose spending documents for over a year. Then it was found they paid REALLY excessive income to the CEO, leading to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis initiating reforms and requiring reviews and oversights over ALL non-profits receiving Florida taxpayer funding. Read more →

The non-profit domain name .org is being sold to a private equity firm controlled by apparent middle eastern managers

A South African equity capital firm may be buying the non-profit firm that controls .org internet domain addresses, which could lead to increased fees or censorship, since many leaders in the firm have Arabic names. Read more →

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis needs to fix his convoluted Appointments Process

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis needs to clean up the obtuse appointments process he inherited. I really believe it was carried from a prior Democrat and is a deep state operation to only let insiders get information on openings, criteria and appointments. Did Charlie Crist holdovers design this clutterd system? See my video and recommendations to clean up the process. Read more →

The new Lake County 2019/2020 Property Tax TRIM Notices are Out - and you need to analyze them

The 2019-20 Lake County, FL property tax TRIM notices are out. We provide an example and some analysis, and tips how to analyze YOUR rates to understand if hidden increases are included. Read more →

Tavares, FL property owners should attend this budget workshop, or open your wallet for higher taxes

Tavares, FL residents need to read this about pending millage rate tax hikes at a City Council workshop on July 24, 2019 at 4pm. These issues of escalating taxes are affecting ALL city and county residents in Lake County and the rest of Florida. If you don't act now, then hold out your wallet for tax day. Read more →

More Lake County, FL Cities and government agencies need to provide Live or uploaded meeting videos!

Local cities and government agencies in Florida, including Lake County, FL, are reducing public transparency by removing most published documents, even for upcoming meeting agendas and staff packets, or annual financial reports or budgets. They are doing it to avoid nuisance lawsuits by roving bands of attorneys suing them for not spending thousands of taxpayer dollars to comply with Federal ADA laws related to "accessibility" for sight and hearing limited users. Read more →

MedMen Medical Marijuana Pot Growers in Eustis, FL Anger Neighbors Over Excessive Industrial Noise

MedMen Medical Marijuana Pot Growers in Eustis, FL Anger Neighbors Over Excessive Industrial Noise Read more →

Two Jacksonville City Council members were indicted last year for fraud, and local officials should ensure they don't do the same.

This is just a friendly reminder from our Watchdog keyboard that Lake County, FL and other elected officials need to ensure they make ethical and objective decisions, and don't practice favoritism, bribery, etc. Read more →

Transparency over local government meeting agendas, minutes, videos, etc. is being damaged by ADA compliance lawsuits

Local governments like cities are being sued because their websites are not completely designed to comply with ADA requirements that were written before the internet was created.  For instance, cities cannot post meeting videos if they don't incur the expense to provide captions that software for the blind or deaf can read and translate so they can understand it.  Thus the benefit of transparency for 97% of the populations are shut down for 3% who complain. Read more →

Are Email Providers like Yahoo, AOL & GMAIL routing Republican Campaign emails to spam folders but not Democrats?

An email campaign consultant ran a study and found that big email providers like Yahoo and AOL were favoring liberal political candidates by routing Republican candidate emails to spam folders, such as in Florida, 100% of Rick Scott tested emails were routed to recipient spam folders, but ZERO % of Democrat Bill Nelson's emails went to spam. Read more →

Project Veritas uncovers a Deep State Federal Auditor working on anti-Capitalist campaigns at work - Call your Congressman

Project Veritas uncovered on video a FEDERAL GAO staffer and card-carrying member of the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) admitting he works to destroy capitalism using work time. As a retired internal audit manager this makes me really angry so I submitted this video link and other information to Trey Gowdy's US House Oversight & Reform Committee and asked for a public investigation. Read more →

Updated: Eustis, FL City Council overpaid for historic building, sell it for much less to Mayor's friends

The Mayor of the City of Eustis, FL pushed through a $250,000 city purchase of a historic building and adjacent lot appraised at $175,000 and over paid $75,000 for the buys. Then the city will keep the lot valued at $35,000 and sell the building for $160,000 to friends of the Mayor without advertising for any other buyers at the sweetheart price. AND, the city will finance the $160,000 (plus imputed interest of $27,000) sale of the building over five years and only require $500 down and no credit checks or due diligence to ensure ability to pay the taxpayer funded mortgage. This is small town cronyism at it's best. Read more →

Reputable Watchdog Group Report says "Florida Finances Slide Further into the Red" with a "C" Grade and shows Deceitful Practice of not funding $9-billion in Retiree Health Insurance Benefits.

The credible watchdog group Truth in Accounting just published their ratings of different state fiscal management ratings and Florida got a C. One deceitful practice used by Florida is to promise government employees big health insurance benefits, currently totaling over $9-billion, but NOT FUNDING it at all. Thus future taxpayers will inherit the bill for these unfunded benefits. Read more →

Florida Huckster State Practice #33 - $500-million South Florida Commuter Rail Contract Dispute Illustrates Poor Contracting Procedures?

Florida Huckster State Case #33 A Florida Commuter Rail Contract for $500+million was awarded using possible Crony Capitalism and Bid Manipulation politics There just seem to be weak standards for ethical contract selections procedures in Huckster Florida, especially in independent agencies in Florida. In this case, the deciding agency, the South Florida Regional Transit Authority (SFRTA - aka Tri-Rail) is also partially funded with Florida taxpayer funds. Suspicious methods were used to award a $500+million contract to a company whose bids were much higher than other competitive bidders who were deemed "ineligible". AND, back in 2011, SFRTA was tied up on a lawsuit over another $100-million contract dispute. Politico.com - Jan. 26, 2017 - " The winner of the South Florida Regional Transit Authority (SFRTA) contract operates Tri-Rail, a commuter rail service that runs on 70.9 miles of track between Jupiter and downtown Miami. The contract could be up a 10-year term." "The public authority that oversees a South Florida commuter rail service is set to award a more than $500 million contract to a company whose bid was tens of millions of dollars higher than its competitors, each of whom was deemed ineligible for the same technical flaw." "Officials... Read more →

How do 17,000 US Conservatives Educate US House & Senate members to vote on Conservative Issues?

Karen Jaroch, Florida Regional Coordinator, speaking about the Heritage Action organization, which is a community action spinoff of think tank Heritage Foundation. Read more →

FBI Announces Damning Evidence of Hillary use of unsecure email servers, but no recommendation for prosecution

July 5, 2016 The FBI Director James Comey just announced their findings in an investigation of Hillary's use of a private email server. As a person who worked within the US Embassy Baghdad in 2004-2006, and saw where a military man was arrested who copied a SINGLE classified document to an unsecure email and file system used by the reconstruction program, I find the FBI decision not to recommend a prosecution to be ludicrous. I used that reconstruction server, and it was shut down for a week while the investigation took place in the Embassy. Comey cited damning evidence such as examples of 7 "Secret" email chains on the server, but their info goes to the Justice department "for action" with no recommendation for prosecution. Gee, that is the Justice Dept where the head just met secretly with Bill Clinton. Democrats should be ashamed of Hillary and her cavalier attitude to national security. The FBI said they could not prove hostile nations accessed her email, but she used unsecure Blackberries in foreign countries, ignoring security issues. She should be in Gitmo for 10 years for her actions. See the 5-minute press conference on C-SPAN here. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →

Will Eustis residents demand an objective process for selecting a new Commissioner, or not?

Tavares, FL Wednesday, Jun 8, 2016 The opinions in this posting are by Vance Jochim and no other source. These are simulated applicants for the Eustis City Commission, not the real people. Will the Eustis City Council select a clown, a relative or a competent person to fill a City Commission vacancy tomorrow, Thursday, June 9th, when they meet at 5:30 pm? Send a link to this post to any Eustis resident you think would be interested. Eustis, FL City Commissioner Bill Brett resigned recently and will the current City Commissioners cook the books to select another insider like they did last year? We tell you all about it, explain tomorrow's Eustis City Council meeting, plus little known facts about the questionable past of one of last year's nominee's. Maybe Eustis residents like insiders and relatives controlling the City, but they need to know what is going on because the local papers won't tell them this. What will happen when applicants for Brett's position are interviewed and a "winner" is selected, led by Mayor Michael Holland? We think the process might be rigged like last time. You can get the June 9 meeting agenda HERE which only lists the selection... Read more →

Florida Division may have cooked work statistics to get better performance rankings

The Inspector General for the Florida Dept. of Business & Professional Regulation (DBPR) reported an audit of a department for cooking the books and submitting multiple work tickets for single work projects to inflate work statistics. The whisteblower also said inflating the numbers would increase rates paid by insured parties. We include the report excerpt and comment on the report and issue. Read more →

Oregon Federal Landgrab over years leads to 150 militia taking over Oregon Wildlife Refuge Building

January 3, 2016 Tavares, FL Property Rights Issue - Another Feds landgrab - This is happening right now in a remote Oregon area, and the mainstream media may not be telling you the story. Neither print newspaper that service Lake County, FL told you about this growing Federal overreach issue in Oregon, but 150 militia folks have taken over a Federal Wildlife Refuge building to protest the arrest and imprisonment of two property owners. Read all the BEST details here - the amazing history of how the Federal government forced out or impoverished many ranchers and now they are fighting back. The Clive Bundy family, who stood up to the Feds attempt to seize land in Nevada are there and this seems to be another property rights issue. Read the details here from conservative sources, not the main stream media. Here is the NBC News video on this. Here is the Washington Post article. Watch for more news on this. Will this be another Waco tragedy led by Obama? Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →

Lake County School Board and Superintendent Restrict District Audit Director from Auditing Certain Functions

Today the Daily Commercial published a front page article about recent actions by the Lake County School Board to restrict the ability of the District Internal Audit Director from reviewing "teaching and learning" processes. We comment on why that is a bad idea. Never forget that government is a monopoly, so extra oversight and transparency is needed to ensure operations are efficient, effective and economical. One way to do that is have an independent internal audit function with full and unfettered access to all employees, vendors, and records. Read more →

How to Use Common Law Grand Juries to Investigate Government Officials

Who knew there is a method defined in the US Constitution and descended from the the British Magna Carta on how citizen activists can convene a Common Law Grand Jury (CLGJ) to investigate local Governent corruption. A well known conservative talk show host and author, Jason W. Hoyt, visited Lake County, FL recently and explained how to setup a CLGJ. Read more →

Florida Gets a D- and is ranked 30th in National State Integrity Investigation Report

Florida ranked a D- in a new, national study comparing all states in 13 "integrity" or accountability categories. A well known national watchdog, Center for Public Integrity ( http://www.publicintegrity.org/ ), published their annual "State Integrity Investigation" report comparing how each state ranks in 13 categories related to transparency, oversight and accountability. A partner, www.GlobalIntegrity.org was also involved in the report development. Florida, like MOST states, ranked near the bottom with a D- and only three states had higher C or B rankings. Based on points, Florida "achieved" a 61, and was 30th out of all 50 states (or 57 states if you are Obama). Read more →

City of Opa-locka, FL suffers from Corruption Scandal, fails to pay phone & other bills

Tavares, FL Nov. 5, 2015 A corruption scandal in the city of Opa-locka, FL has caused the city to run out of cash and they aren't paying their bills. "The city even stopped paying life insurance premiums for its workers. You know it's bad when their phone service is shut off for not paying the bills. I will write more later, but here is an initial story on it: Miami Herald On brink of financial collapse, Opa-locka seeks state help For Opa-locka government leaders, the signs of financial distress came abruptly last month: The phone service to City Hall was shut off. Then came the complaints: The city owed thousands in rent payments for police satellite offices and $100,000 to a contractor who walked off the job while restoring the historic City Hall. The city even stopped paying life insurance premiums for its workers. Just two weeks after a corruption scandal embroiled Opa-locka's leaders, the city is faced with another grim development: Opa-locka is edging toward financial collapse. http://www.miamiherald.com/…/miami-gar…/article43040772.html vj Read more →

For Profit Colleges Under Investigation by Congress, and this one shouldn't receive funds

Tavares, FL Nov. 3, 2015 Billions of US taxpayer funds flow to private, for profit colleges, and many overcharge, lie to students and the students run up school debt from Federal loans and don't pay it back. How do these colleges qualify to get the Federal student loans? They are approved by private accreditation firms, and if they don't implement tight standards, the colleges get away with fraud and students, not the colleges, are on the hook for debt for poor education. Read this story and watch the video of Senator Warren grilling the head of one of the accreditors and you will get mad at the Federal government for allowing some of these accreditors and colleges to get ANY Federal tax dollars. VJ Read more →

Small Town California Newspaper gets Pulitzer for Investigation Series on Local School District Corruption

A California school district with only four schools and 6600 students suffered huge fiscal losses due to cronyism and corruption and overpayment of salaries. The local paper published a 10-part investigative series and won a Pulitzer. One of the lessons is the corruption that can occur when contracting firms support elected school board members to get huge school bond issues totaling $200-million and related projects approved. Additionally, the District Superindant was paid $663,000 in salaries, benefits and perks, which was much higher than the Superintendant of the much larger Los Angeles School District. Read more →

FiscalFiasco: Michigan wastes $12-million on commuter railcar leases and doesn't use them

Feb. 3, 2015 Tavares, FL Another fine government fiscal fiasco in Michigan wasting over $12-million in taxpayer funds. It seems that the State of Michigan leased a bunch of OLD railcars for a local commuter rail project, but it isn't ready, so the cars sit idle while piling up over $1-million per year in lease payments. Only government (in Michigan) could be that stupid and wasteful of taxpayer funds. It seems that Michigan requires 10% of a Transportation fund be spent on commuter rail, so they blew it on the commuter railcar leases when the railroad line was not usable. "The Michigan Department of Transportation started leasing the cars in 2010 for two commuter rail passenger services proposed between Detroit and Ann Arbor, and Howell and Ann Arbor. But nearly five years later, none of the cars has logged a single commuter passenger mile. There still is no funding and no operator for either proposed commuter service, required environmental studies are not complete, and in the case of the Detroit-Ann Arbor service, even the tracks won't be ready for another two years." "The roughly $11.4 million spent as of Dec. 31 was mostly paid from Michigan's $300-million Comprehensive Transportation Fund,... Read more →