Michigan lawmakers are doling out taxpayer cash to corporations faster than any state in the nation, and it’s not even close.

“From 2018-2023, Michigan spent twice as much on incentives as the #2 state,” David Guenthner, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s vice president for government affairs, posted to X Thursday, along with the data to back up his claim. “6x Texas, 8x Florida, 12x Tennessee.

“All of those states are lapping Michigan in job creation and population growth,” he noted. “Because MI pols would rather subsidize @GM & @Ford than fix the damn roads.”

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An attached chart from IncentivesFlow, “a Service from FDI Intelligence,” shows Michigan spent $2.663 billion in taxpayer-funded economic incentives over the six-year time frame.

South Carolina, the next closest state, spent $1.6 billion, followed by California at $1.3 billion, Indiana at $1.215 billion, and Oregon at $1.013 billion.

The spending data follows just days after the Mackinac Center released a report titled “Front Page Failures” that exposes the futility of Michigan’s taxpayer-funded economic incentives.

“Front page new stories in Michigan’s largest newspaper from 2000 to 2020 announced the creation of a total of 123,060 new jobs,” according to the report. “State reports show these deals created just 10,889 jobs in the end, a success rate of just 9%. Only one in 11 of the announced jobs in these front page stories ever came to fruition.”

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More than half – 21 out of 41 – did not produce a single job, according to the analysis.

“News headlines frequently tout the promise of new jobs, but rarely report when the programs fail to deliver on their promises,” said James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center and author of the study.

“This creates a misunderstanding among the public that job announcements are the same thing as actual jobs created,” he said. “Yet lawmakers continue to rubber-stamp these ineffective and costly deals.”

The cost to taxpayers since 2000: $23 billion, with the bulk going to auto and auto parts manufacturers.

Despite the obviously terrible return on that investment, lawmakers created a Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve program in 2021 with the intent to reel in major manufacturing investments.

And the problem has only gotten worse.

In the years since, the Michigan Legislature has committed nearly $2.1 billion in taxpayer-funded business incentives with little to show for it.

The deals include $666 million in incentives for General Motors announced in 2022 for electric vehicle projects, including an expansion of its Orion Township assembly plant to produce an all-electric pickup, and a Lansing area battery plant through a joint venture with LG Energy Solution.

The two projects were slated to create 3,200 to 4,000 jobs.

GM has since pushed back its plans in Orion Township by a year, leaving the facility idle until an expected restart in 2026. Last week, GM announced it’s selling its stake in the Ultium Cells Lansing battery plant, but suggested the South Korea-based LG will ultimately fulfill the jobs requirement to secure taxpayer funds.

Another $200 million from the SOAR fund to Novi-based Our Next Energy is intended to produce 2,112 jobs at a mattery manufacturing plant in Wayne County. That deal also included more than $36 million in other state funds.

But ONE vice president of communications Dan Pierce refused to discuss progress with The Detroit News, both in terms of funding received to date and jobs created.

In Marshall, Ford initially planned to use more than $1 billion from taxpayers to build a new BlueOval Battery Park to produce EV batteries in partnership with the Chinese Communist Party-linked Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., known as CATL.

Ford promised to create 2,500 jobs, but scaled back its $3.5 billion investment by roughly $1 billion this year, prompting the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to slash its incentives by about 60%.

Ford also gave up a $100.8 million in state incentives it was set to receive for creating 3,200 jobs at five existing Detroit Metro manufacturing facilities, due in part to less-than-expected demand for EVs.

Gotion, Inc. was also approved for $715 million in taxpayer subsidies to create 2,350 jobs at a planned battery parts plant near Big Rapids in 2022, but that project remains mired in litigation and fervent opposition from Republicans and local residents over concerns about the company’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, impacts on the Muskegon River, and national security.

The ineffective business incentives are fueling efforts in Lansing to more closely scrutinize the deals, which are often negotiated in secret using nondisclosure agreements with select lawmakers.

Republican House Speaker-elect Matt Hall told The News he wants business incentives to go through a more transparent vetting that requires full legislative approval for each project, a process that would allow the public to better evaluate the spending.

“They need to make the case on individual projects,” he said. “Not in secret. And not with a select group of members.”

“We have to set priorities,” Hall said. “That’s what this government has been missing the last two years especially. I’m just saying roads is a higher priority than giving the money to corporations.”

Hall is championing a plan to shift some of the taxpayer-funded business subsidies toward the state’s $3.9 billion annual funding shortfall for road and bridge repairs, though Democrats have raised issues with that plan.

Democrats that currently control both chambers of the Michigan legislature, meanwhile, are pressing ahead with $270 million in additional spending during the lame duck session on a Dow Chemical project in Midland, a copper mine in Gogebic County, and a Corning solar component manufacturing facility in Saginaw County.

Voters in November ended Democrats’ first government trifecta in 40 years, handing control of the House to Republicans who will take over in January.

“The state has delivered two decades of false promises as the companies and politicians involved in these deals rarely deliver,” Hohman said. “Michigan lawmakers should rethink their reliance on corporate welfare as an economic development tool and the media should use more skepticism when reporting on these deals. At a minimum, journalists should provide context that job announcements are different from actual jobs and have a poor track record of success.”