Gov. Gretchen Whitmer continued her calls for a corporate tax increase in Shelby Township this week, insisting “new, fairer sources of revenue” are a must for fulfilling her campaign promise to “fix the damn roads.”

Whitmer attempted to leverage her recent win with President Donald Trump to bring a new fighter jet mission to Selfridge Air National Guard Base to demand a “compromise” on road funding during Monday’s Governor’s Luncheon with the Macomb County Chamber, The Macomb Daily reports.

“As we celebrate the big win of last week, the lesson that’s sticking with me is one that everyone in this room knows very well in Macomb County: The best way to get things done is by doing them together,” Whitmer said. “From local government officials to business leaders, the willingness to work across the aisle and across sectors has played a key role in making Macomb County an economic powerhouse.”

The governor likened the bipartisan cooperation on Selfridge to what’s needed to address the state’s $3.9 billion annual road funding shortfall, ignoring a plan approved by House Republicans and some Democrats 49 days ago to pump $3.1 billion into local road repairs with no new taxes.

The Republican roads plan relies heavily on diverting hundreds of millions in corporate subsidies to roads, which the governor has repeatedly claimed would hurt the state’s ability to attract businesses.

“We can’t afford to risk all of the process we have made here in Macomb,” she said Monday. “If we compromise, I’m confident we can deliver a strong roads deal and keep winning key manufacturing investments.”

The “compromise,” she said, must include both spending cuts and “new, fairer sources of revenue.”

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“We’ve got to be able to do both,” Whitmer said.

It’s was the same message during Whitmer’s State of the State Address, and in comments last month to the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce.

As the Republican no-tax roads bills languish in the Democratic controlled Senate, Whitmer has promoted her own $2.7 billion plan that would instead increase the corporate tax rate to squeeze Michigan businesses for $1.6 billion, while also imposing $470 million in new taxes on wholesale marijuana, among other new taxes.

While Whitmer’s plan is light on specifics, legislation introduced by House Democrats aims to hike the state’s corporate tax rate from 6% to 8.5% to fund road repairs, which would put the state on par with California with one of the highest rates in the nation.

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Officials with the Detroit Regional Chamber told MLive the proposed tax hike “penalizes the entire economy and creates a new challenge for doing business in Michigan.”

Whitmer was elected six years ago on a promise to “fix the damn roads,” but was forced to borrow $3.5 billion when lawmakers rejected her plan to hike the state’s motor fuels tax by 45 cents to the highest rate in the nation.

That money is now gone, and “roads are deteriorating faster than the agencies can repair them,” according to an annual road and bridges report.

Michigan taxpayers are spending $340 million this year to pay off the $3.5 billion the governor borrowed for road repairs, which came with $2.5 billion in interest, according to Michigan Department of Transportation data cited by The Detroit News.

At the same time, the governor has funneled billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies to multibillion dollar companies to prop up the electric vehicle and renewable energy industries in Michigan in recent years with little to show for it.

A recent report from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation that oversees the payouts showed that more than $670 million paid to five companies in those industries came with a promise to create a total of 8,812 jobs, but so far there’s been zero “actual qualified jobs created.”

The taxpayer funded incentives through Michigan’s Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Critical Industry Program – one of several MEDC corporate welfare programs – include $480 million for General Motors to create 1,840 jobs, $120 million for Ultium Cells to create 1,360, $125 million for CCP-linked Gotion to create 2,350, $200 million for Our Next Energy to create 2,112, and $68 million for Solar Technology to create 1,150.

MEDC has disbursed the full amounts for GM, Ultium Cells, and Our Next Energy, while no payments have yet been made to Gotion or Solar Technology, according to the report, which covers fiscal year 2024 that ended Sept. 30.

The incentive deals were negotiated in secret by the Whitmer administration and select lawmakers through non-disclosure agreements mandated by the MEDC, which is controlled by an executive committee appointed by Whitmer.

Not only have the jobs failed to materialize, companies awarded taxpayer funds have backed out of their commitments, or laid off employees.

In March, Our Next Energy cut two dozen Michigan jobs in a second round of layoffs since receiving its $200 million payout. The company also laid off 128 workers in November to focus on “core priorities,” according to The Detroit News.

In December, GM announced it is selling its ownership stake in Ultium Cells, leaving its joint venture partner, South Korea-based LG Energy Solution, to fulfill the SOAR job commitments.

GM has also delayed plans to expand its EV factory in Orion Township, despite $480 million in SOAR funding for that project.

Those decisions came as GM laid off thousands of employees in 2024.

The SOAR deals follow a long line of corporate welfare agreements in Michigan dating back decades that have repeatedly promised big returns that far exceeded reality.

A Mackinac Center for Public Policy analysis of front page news stories about subsidized job deals touting a total of 123,060 promised jobs between Jan. 1, 2000 and Dec. 31, 2020 found those deals created just 10,889 jobs, a success rate of just 9%.

“Someone has to finally put the taxpayers and Michigan workers first, not sell out to big corporations making billions in profits,” Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp., said in December. “These bad deals leave us all twisting in the wind.”