Commentary
Jobs agency ghost-writes its own public relations
Self-serving spin, stonewalling and secretiveness is the agency’s true bailiwick
Gov. Whitmer and others pose at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Our Next Energy | State of Michigan
The Wizard of Oz is back in the news lately thanks to the release of the movie musical “Wicked for Good.” Like the people of Oz in the original movie, the people of Michigan need a Toto (remember Dorothy’s dog?) to pull back the curtain on a supposed wizard — in this case, the state’s corporate handout agency. When the curtain is pulled back, we find a tired and scared fellow who bellows “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has long fought to keep the curtain closed. It has stonewalled requests for information, redirected inquiries, offered non-responsive responses, engaged in spin-doctoring, hid an outside analysis of Pure Michigan behind claims of “proprietary” methods of calculating return on investment and parked crucial data with private contractors, which helps keep vital information from the public’s hands.
It should not be allowed to do so. Short of shutting down this failed agency and its programs, lawmakers should open it up to the disinfecting sunlight of greater transparency and quicker accountability.
I was repeatedly reminded of the MEDC’s foot-dragging this year for two reasons. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel accused the agency of stonewalling its investigation into an alleged $20 million grant award to a former board member. Also, the Mackinac Center was forced to endure a six month-plus odyssey to obtain documents it requested in March. We had to threaten two separate lawsuits to jar the information loose.
We discovered from those FOIA requests that MEDC staffers extolled the agency’s virtues in a ghost-written commentary that was pitched to The Detroit News in January. The MEDC staff asked JoAnn Crary, then of Saginaw Future, Inc., a local economic development agency, to put her name on the essay. She did so, apparently with edits, and offered it to The Detroit News, which published it on Jan. 15.
One email from the MEDC’s communications director read, “Good morning, team: flagging that you’ve seen, [sic] the op-ed we drafted for JoAnn Crary as a response to the (Mackinac Center) piece earlier this month finally went live last night.” The “team” even included MEDC CEO Quentin Messer, who had reviewed the draft and offered comments for an edit.
The Mackinac Center’s executive vice-president, Mike Reitz, had weeks earlier written a critique of the agency, titled, “MEDC Has Woeful Record of Failure.” It cited the Mackinac Center’s newest study to demonstrate that only 9% of the jobs promised through state subsidy deals came to fruition. The MEDC felt compelled to protect itself with a response but apparently didn’t want to leave any fingerprints. The documents also noted MEDC officials intended to promote itself with ghost written op-eds throughout 2025, with the help of other “partners.”
The MEDC/Crary op-ed did not mention the Mackinac Center, but we know it was in response to the Reitz op-ed, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act request that took months to fulfill.
We have been through delays like this over the decades. In 2005 the MEDC made claims about the success of its (then) flagship development program, and I knew they were unlikely to be true. I tried to get answers from the MEDC about its claims. Months passed and getting the information required an intervention from a legislator. Once I obtained the information, the MEDC’s claims fell apart, but by then the jobs debate had moved on.
That is why MEDC stonewalling can be so effective. By foot-dragging (489-plus days, for instance) it can delay and deny legitimate criticism. We are not the only institution to suffer this fate. News agencies, citizens, lawmakers and even the state attorney general’s office have been stymied.
Nessel has publicly accused the agency of stonewalling her. She suggested that the agency’s funding be cut until it gets proper oversight. To the attorney general we say, “welcome to our world.”
The MEDC and its programs should be defunded permanently. A fair field and no favors will create far more jobs than the expensive agency could ever hope to. Short of that, the agency needs to be peeled open by the Legislature so that institutions and people will have more information at their hands to judge the efficacy of its activities.
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Jobs agency ghost-writes its own public relations
Self-serving spin, stonewalling and secretiveness is the agency’s true bailiwick
The Wizard of Oz is back in the news lately thanks to the release of the movie musical “Wicked for Good.” Like the people of Oz in the original movie, the people of Michigan need a Toto (remember Dorothy’s dog?) to pull back the curtain on a supposed wizard — in this case, the state’s corporate handout agency. When the curtain is pulled back, we find a tired and scared fellow who bellows “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has long fought to keep the curtain closed. It has stonewalled requests for information, redirected inquiries, offered non-responsive responses, engaged in spin-doctoring, hid an outside analysis of Pure Michigan behind claims of “proprietary” methods of calculating return on investment and parked crucial data with private contractors, which helps keep vital information from the public’s hands.
It should not be allowed to do so. Short of shutting down this failed agency and its programs, lawmakers should open it up to the disinfecting sunlight of greater transparency and quicker accountability.
I was repeatedly reminded of the MEDC’s foot-dragging this year for two reasons. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel accused the agency of stonewalling its investigation into an alleged $20 million grant award to a former board member. Also, the Mackinac Center was forced to endure a six month-plus odyssey to obtain documents it requested in March. We had to threaten two separate lawsuits to jar the information loose.
We discovered from those FOIA requests that MEDC staffers extolled the agency’s virtues in a ghost-written commentary that was pitched to The Detroit News in January. The MEDC staff asked JoAnn Crary, then of Saginaw Future, Inc., a local economic development agency, to put her name on the essay. She did so, apparently with edits, and offered it to The Detroit News, which published it on Jan. 15.
One email from the MEDC’s communications director read, “Good morning, team: flagging that you’ve seen, [sic] the op-ed we drafted for JoAnn Crary as a response to the (Mackinac Center) piece earlier this month finally went live last night.” The “team” even included MEDC CEO Quentin Messer, who had reviewed the draft and offered comments for an edit.
The Mackinac Center’s executive vice-president, Mike Reitz, had weeks earlier written a critique of the agency, titled, “MEDC Has Woeful Record of Failure.” It cited the Mackinac Center’s newest study to demonstrate that only 9% of the jobs promised through state subsidy deals came to fruition. The MEDC felt compelled to protect itself with a response but apparently didn’t want to leave any fingerprints. The documents also noted MEDC officials intended to promote itself with ghost written op-eds throughout 2025, with the help of other “partners.”
The MEDC/Crary op-ed did not mention the Mackinac Center, but we know it was in response to the Reitz op-ed, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act request that took months to fulfill.
We have been through delays like this over the decades. In 2005 the MEDC made claims about the success of its (then) flagship development program, and I knew they were unlikely to be true. I tried to get answers from the MEDC about its claims. Months passed and getting the information required an intervention from a legislator. Once I obtained the information, the MEDC’s claims fell apart, but by then the jobs debate had moved on.
That is why MEDC stonewalling can be so effective. By foot-dragging (489-plus days, for instance) it can delay and deny legitimate criticism. We are not the only institution to suffer this fate. News agencies, citizens, lawmakers and even the state attorney general’s office have been stymied.
Nessel has publicly accused the agency of stonewalling her. She suggested that the agency’s funding be cut until it gets proper oversight. To the attorney general we say, “welcome to our world.”
The MEDC and its programs should be defunded permanently. A fair field and no favors will create far more jobs than the expensive agency could ever hope to. Short of that, the agency needs to be peeled open by the Legislature so that institutions and people will have more information at their hands to judge the efficacy of its activities.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.
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