“Fix the damn roads” was Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s campaign slogan in 2018 and repeated frequently during her 2022 reelection bid. But Michigan roads remain damned, even though she and her Democrats had total control over the state budget between 2022 and 2024.

The squandered opportunity was exposed in January when Republicans took back the Michigan House. That’s when new GOP Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp., announced a $3.1 billion road funding plan that included a $1.1 billion cut to corporate welfare. 

With her local slush fund threatened, Whitmer went to the Trump White House in February and begged for some federal subsidies. No stranger to return on investment, the president should look at where Whitmer has been wasting our money. 

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 411,000 Americans were added to the unemployment rolls between January 2019 (when Whitmer took office) and the end of last year. Whitmer’s Michigan, with only 3% of the nation’s population, managed to account for 10% of the problem, putting 41,000 additional applicants in the jobless line.

Proponents of making taxpayers subsidize corporations believe doing so creates jobs. A more cynical view is that it allows politicians to reward political cronies and rake in campaign donations. But let’s give Whitmer the benefit of doubt that she does this for honest reasons, and accept that she has failed spectacularly.

How did she do it? There’s literally more than a billion reasons, and that’s a conservative estimate.

Those not drinking the corporate welfare Kool-Aid might remember this dismally hilarious headline from last June: “Michigan has spent $1B on EV, battery plants. So far, they’ve created 200 jobs.”

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The source was Bridge Magazine, Michigan’s high brow big government newsletter. And yet, even Bridge had to concede our hapless governor had spent $5 million per job. That’s a return on investment that would shame a Soviet economist. 

According to Bridge, the governor had initially boasted the billion bucks would create 12,000 jobs, but that two years after the deals “hiring remains at less than 2% of promises.” 

So, at 1% success per year the full return on investment is just  . . . uh . . . 98 short years away!

Here’s what Bridge wrote of one project:

“Michigan spent another $78.3 million on one startup, Our Next Energy, that promised to create 2,112 jobs and invest $1.6 billion in an EV gigafactory. Instead, it has 50 workers at the project in southern Wayne County and laid off 25% of its company-wide workforce.”

In October 2022, Whitmer said this of the Our Next Energy subsidy:

“This innovative, Michigan-made company is on the cutting-edge of battery technology, and the work they’re doing will increase the range of electric vehicles to over 600 miles on a single charge. With this new gigafactory, we will continue bringing the supply chain of electric vehicles, chips, and batteries home to Michigan and the USA while creating a sustainable, clean energy economy.”

Back in January 2023, before it all went bad, Whitmer’s office sent out a news release claiming the state would “dominate” American battery manufacturing. “We’re ready to build on our proud legacy and automotive heritage here in Michigan to once again usher in a greener, more sustainable and electrified future in 2023 and beyond,” said Whitmer.

This year, with Republicans taking control of the White House and the Michigan House, Whitmer raised a surrender flag.

“We don’t care what you drive,” she said on January 15, 2025, and warned that “other states” were “just writing blank checks to companies.” 

“That’s bad policy,” Whitmer observed, in perhaps the least self aware thing ever said by a Michigan governor.

The next day, Speaker Matt Hall announced the Republican plan to finally fix the roads by cutting $1.1 billion from her corporate welfare piggy bank. 

Last month, Bridge analyzed Whitmer’s record and wrote this of the roads:

“Road funding was a key plank of Whitmer’s winning 2018 gubernatorial campaign, but her 2019 proposal to enact a 45-cent gas tax increase — which would have given Michigan the highest gas taxes in the nation — was never taken up by the GOP-led Legislature. Fellow Democrats distanced themselves from the proposal too.” [emphasis added]

Had she put that wasted billion dollars into the damn roads, then we’d have pavement to show for it. Even Whitmer’s campaign promises concede that would have been an excellent return on investment.

And it would have created a lot more than 200 jobs.