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While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan Economic Development Corporation contends it’s “not the outcome we hoped for,” residents in Mecosta County are celebrating its decision to nix $715 million in taxpayer-funded incentives for Gotion. MEDC officials on Thursday notified lawmakers that the company with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party is in breach of its economic development contract, which was negotiated in secret by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration and select lawmakers just three years ago. “It’s about damn time,” Marjorie Steele, founder of the Economic Development Responsibility Alliance that opposed Gotion’s planned $2.4 billion EV battery plant, told Bridge Michigan....

A state senator says Michigan's economic development agency's inflated claims of job creation is costing it credibility and leading her to lose confidence in the program. State Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, called out the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for its press release that boasted of new job creations that a state audit showed only occurred 28 percent of the time. At a recent senate hearing, Cassis told MEDC CEO Greg Main, "The press releases are an absolute disconnect with reality." Michael Shore, spokesman for the MEDC, didn't respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Cassis said the MEDC didn't seem too...

A Mackinac Center for Public Policy story that looked into a questionable land deal has prompted two politicians to create legislation to bring more transparency in the state agency overseeing it. State Reps. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, and Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, said they are planning bills to address the Hangar42 Studios controversy. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Kathy Hoekstra and Michael LaFaive uncovered an oddity in the tax incentive deal involving Hangar42 Studios. The studio was in line for a refundable infrastructure tax credit worth 25 percent of the investment in the project in Grand Rapids. But as late...

Michigan - About nine months before an Auditor General's report questioned the accuracy of job projections in tax incentives handed to companies by the state, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy did its own study highlighting the problem. On Aug. 31, 2009, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Michael LaFaive and James Hohman reviewed data from 219 credits from 1995 to 2004 involving the Michigan Economic Growth Authority. The MEGA agreements are tax incentives designed to induce businesses to locate in Michigan. In return for the tax incentives, the businesses pledge to create new jobs. The Mackinac Center found company...

The state's "flagship" economic development program may have doled out an estimated $150 million in tax credits erroneously in the last five years to companies that didn't meet the criteria due to a lack of oversight, according to State Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills. McMillin met with the state Auditor General's office Tuesday after it released a report this week that said the state didn't follow up on company job projections that often fell short of required triggers to receive tax credits but still received the money. The report comes a little more than a month after it was learned...

Readers of the state of Michigan's various Web sites would be hard pressed to find evidence of one of the more embarrassing incidents to have happened this year to the Granholm administration. On March 16, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced in a press-release a series of state tax credits awarded to businesses, including one to a now-infamous company named RASCO. The press release stated the "the new-to-Michigan leader in renewable energy, water and telecommunications sectors" was approved for a $9.1 million tax credit and would create 1,813 new jobs. The state nixed the deal when it found that RASCO CEO Richard...