An analysis published by Michigan Capital Confidential states more state grant recipients should be held to their word.
“Historically, most of the job promises made by subsidy programs under the MEDC (Michigan Economic Development Corp.) umbrella are not fulfilled and there is very little accountability for the lack of results,” Michigan Capitol Confidential Managing Editor Tom Gantert writes.
As recently as in 2013, research by the state’s auditor general found that 19 percent of the jobs projected by the MEDC’s 21st Century Jobs Trust Fund actually panned out, Gantert states. In addition, one of the reports produced by the group thus far this year finds that just 51 percent of the jobs initially projected by the MEDC were actually created in the Michigan Strategic Fund.
“Government programs that authorize substantial grants of state taxpayer subsidy dollars for select corporations operate according to a certain formula,” the analysis states. "...But after the dollars are handed over and the news stories written, the effectiveness of the business subsidies are rarely examined.”
Michigan Capital Confidential is a nonprofit news services produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
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