A review of business incentive deals approved by Michigan’s Democratic government trifecta reveals the party’s rhetoric on corporate welfare doesn’t match reality.

“Taxes are much higher than they need to be because Michigan politicians continue to finance one of the most expensive corporate welfare programs in the country. Lawmakers could afford to cut the state income tax significantly if they would just stop lavishing select businesses with taxpayer subsidies,” the Mackinac Center for Public Policy noted in its October 2024 “Blueprint for a Brighter Future.”

“Instead of authorizing $4.5 billion in corporate incentives during a single legislative term, Michigan could have eliminated businesses taxes for everyone. Taxing all businesses to redistribute the proceeds to just a few is unfair and ineffective,” the MCPP reported.

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That assessment follows two years of unprecedented increases in corporate incentives in Michigan, many tied to the electric vehicle industry and efforts to meet Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s climate goals.

In 2023, the year Democrats took over majority control of the Michigan Legislature, taxpayer funded corporate subsidies skyrocketed from less than $1 billion the year prior to well over $4 billion.

The total has since swelled to about $4.6 billion in the current term that runs through Jan. 8, 2025, with additional bills pending in the lame duck session that could push that figure to $11 billion, the Mackinac Center reports.

A breakdown of lawmakers who have voted in favor of the spending between 2001 and this year shows 61 Democrats approved 100% of business incentive deals, while a dozen Republicans have approved none.

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In between, Democrats generally dominate the rankings above the 60% vote approval threshold, while Republicans generally approved less.

Among those with a 100% track record of approval is Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, with $7.5 billion in subsidies supported, as well as Senate President Pro Tempore Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, who voted to spend $7.3 billion.

There’s also Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, Majority Whip Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, Majority Floor Leader Sen. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, and others who continue to helm their respective chambers.

While some of the business incentive deals come with big job promises, experts at the Mackinac Center note “history of Michigan’s corporate welfare apparatus shows that only a tiny percentage of the projected jobs are ever actually ‘created.’”

That was evident this summer, when a Bridge Michigan analysis of $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies for the EV industry revealed that out of 12,000 promised jobs, only 200 had materialized.

Other deals exchange millions in tax dollars for no jobs, including $97 million for Corning, $50 million for Highland Copper, $65 million for a Marshall Area Development, $60 million for Muskegon wastewater, and $27 million for Hemlock Semiconductor, which were all approved in recent years.

Still others have been exposed for directing millions to Democratic Party leaders with close ties to those in power, including a shady $20 million grant to Detroit businesswoman Fay Beydoun, who was appointed by Whitmer to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s executive committee in 2019.

Beydoun was forced out of that role in April, after The Detroit News exposed how she was spending her grant.

“Beydoun spent about $800,000 through December of the first $10 million tranche of the grant,” according to the news site. “Among her expenses were a $4,500 coffeemaker, an $11,000 first-class plane ticket to Budapest, more than $40,000 in furniture and $408,000 in salary costs for two people over a three-month period.”

It took the FBI urging Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to investigate before the Democratic AG took action and the legislature moved to revoke the remainder of Beydoun’s grant.

While the MEDC has vowed to pay closer attention to the corporate subsidies, and who’s receiving them, taxpayers are forced to take their word for it.

That’s because some of the biggest deals are shielded by nondisclosure agreements, including $715 million in taxpayer incentives for Gotion, a company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party that plans to build an EV battery component plant in Mecosta County.

Those plans are now in flux with a newly elected President Donald Trump, who is “100% OPPOSED” to Gotion, as well as an ongoing lawsuit with township officials leading local opposition to the plant.

“With billions in corporate welfare, subsidies, tax shelters and tax cuts, large corporations and the wealthiest individuals pay less than their fair share of the tax burden,” according to the Michigan Democratic Party platform. “This forces working people and small businesses to pay more than their fair share … In Michigan, the overall tax burden for corporations is less than zero. This is not only unjust; this is economically unsustainable.”

That may sound like common sense, but the data shows that’s not how Lansing Democrats operate.

A simple solution is included in “101 Recommendations to Revitalize Michigan” that calls for “eliminating all select subsidies, incentives, corporate welfare and industry-specific tax favors.”

That would provide the means for another recommendation most Michiganders would appreciate: “Cutting the state income tax back below 4% and setting it on a path to roll back to zero to match high-growth states like Tennessee, Texas, Florida and Washington.”