Michigan spent $1.8B on corporate welfare, got 3% of promised jobs

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer promised that $2.7 billion in corporate welfare would create 20,595 jobs. It has only created 602 jobs so far, according to a new report from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The report focuses on eight major projects that were offered $2.7 billion in exchange for the promise of 20,595 jobs. So far, $1.8 billion of the money offered has been spent, but only 602 jobs have been created, according to the report produced by James Hohman, fiscal policy director at the Mackinac Center. That’s 3% of total employment positions announced.

“The money delivered to select companies would have been better left in taxpayers’ pockets,” Hohman said.

Lawmakers, Hohman told Michigan Capitol Confidential, wouldn’t have needed to tax people as much had they not authorized so much in business subsidies.

People are misled by their representatives over these job deals, Hohman noted.

“Officials sound so certain in their job announcements that companies will do what they got a deal to do,” he said.

But things rarely go as expected and few of the jobs mentioned by elected officials materialize, Hohman added.

The report analyzed eight subsidy deals involving the following companies: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, for plants in Detroit and Warren; General Motors/LG Energy Solution, for a new battery factory near Lansing and to convert its Lake Orion plant to provide EV pickups; Ford Motor Co. for plant upgrades and a new packaging center; Gotion, for a battery component plant in Mecosta County; Our Next Energy, for a battery manufacturing facility in Wayne County’s Van Buren Township; a paper manufacturer in Escanaba; Ford, for an EV battery plant in Marshall; and the Mundy megasite near Flint.

The two companies that have produced the most jobs of the eight companies studied are General Motors/LG Energy Solution and Ford, with its electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall. The two companies have produced a total of 554 jobs.

General Motors and LG Energy Solution were awarded $600 million in direct payments and $66.1 million for site preparation under the expectation they would create 4,000 jobs.

To date, the Lansing-area battery plant reported 408 jobs.

The Mackinac Center report shows that the state offered $960 million in total subsidies in 2023 for Ford’s EV battery plant in Marshall, with the promise of producing 2,500 jobs.

So far it has created 146 jobs with no jobs at the facility.

The state paid $70 million to the company Our Next Energy, which promised to create over 2,000 jobs. The company created just 48 jobs, according to a 2025 state report.

Whitmer did not respond to a request for comment.