In 2015, the state of Michigan’s flagship corporate welfare agency heralded the prospect of 150,000 visitors going to downtown Pontiac, thanks to a $4.5 million loan it made. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation loaned the money to the Strand Theatre, which, it said, would provide 90 permanent full-time jobs paying an average of $18 an hour.

But millions of taxpayer dollars later, the theater has fallen short of the state’s aspirations.

Currently, the Pontiac theater has one event publicized on its website, a Michael Jackson tribute show scheduled for June 2. It also hosted a blues concert on May 19. A third party has rented the facility for a third event that will be held on June 8. According to the theater's Facebook page, there has been three events thus far in 2018.

And the Strand Theatre didn’t have a functioning phone number for at least four days in May, something the sponsoring company said it was aware of and eventually fixed.

While the theater provided some basic information on its events, it didn’t respond to requests for how many full-time employees it has.

Despite the theater’s floundering, politicians have applauded and given it recognition.

Gov. Rick Snyder awarded the companies involved in the theater’s restoration the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation, an award created by the State Historic Preservation Office.

State Sen. Jim Marleau, whose district includes the theater, praised the project in a May 2 press release.

“This restoration project has increased the quality of life for Pontiac residents, and the theater is sure to be a destination for surrounding communities, bringing additional economic activity to the city,” said Marleau, R-Lake Orion. “This great city has struggled from the economic downturn of 2008, but this restoration is representative of Pontiac’s resurgence and economic comeback.”

But the theater, which opened in early 2017, is around due to a constant supply of government subsidies.

The city of Pontiac pumped $7.5 million into it from 2002 to 2005 but had little to show for that investment. The renovation was not completed in that time, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and the building was sold in 2013 to developers.

The city of Pontiac has also provided the theater with a 12-year property tax abatement. The theater also has received a $3.5 million tax credit for historic buildings, according to the state.

The Illinois Facilities Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit, provided the theater with a $750,000 loan in 2016. The fund receives taxpayer money.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation gave the theater a $4.5 million loan in 2015 and said at that time the renovation would provide “a significant economic boost” to the area once it was up and running.

Lee Roumaya owns the Fillmore 13 Brewery. His website states that his brewery is located “in the heart of Pontiac, across from the Strand Theater.”

“I don’t want to get into the politics,” Roumaya said in a telephone interview, when asked about the theater. He said he came to Pontiac based on his own business concepts and wasn’t concerned with how other businesses do.

“Hopefully, [the theater] will pick up a little steam and be more successful,” Roumaya said.

Michael LaFaive, a fiscal policy analyst at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said the state should leave investing in businesses to the private sector.

“There is no reason to force taxpayers to subsidize entertainment, either through the artist or the theater in which they perform,” LaFaive said. "It is not only unfair to transfer money from the many who do not enjoy the Strand and its offerings to those who do, it is economically unproductive.”

Emily Tims is president of the Lake Shore Federation of Teachers Local 1465 and is listed as a teacher on the payroll of Lake Shore Public Schools. But the contract her union has negotiated with the Macomb County district allows Tims to collect a full-time teacher’s pay while spending half her workdays doing union business. The practice is called “leave time.”

Tims, who had a salary of $81,572 in 2016-17, recently wrote a letter for Teacher Appreciation Week that was addressed to union members and shared by the Michigan arm of the American Federation of Teachers.

The letter highlights a gripe Tims has about a feature of teachers’ jobs that most people regard as a benefit: the 183-day annual work schedule.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent analysis of private sector paid leave was for the year 2012. The BLS found that the average full-time private sector employee was granted 10 vacation days, 8 sick leave days and 8 holidays.

There are generally 260 working days in a calendar year when weekends are excluded. That means an average private sector employee works 234 days a year after holidays and days off, or 51 days more than a Lake Shore Public Schools teacher. Also, the Lakeshore union contract states that a teacher workday is generally six hours during the 183 days a teacher is contracted to work.

The average teacher is not in the classroom 183 days in a year, though, being absent several days a year for sick days, doctor's appointments and work-related conferences.

A 2017 study released by the Thomas Fordham Institute found that 25 percent of teachers in public school districts missed 11 days or more from the classroom, which it defined as chronically absent.

Michigan Capitol Confidentially filed open records requests inquiring about teacher absences with some of the state’s larger school districts. In the Detroit school district, teachers missed, on average, 13 school days in 2016-17. Teachers at Plymouth-Canton Community Schools’ missed an average of 17 school days in 2016-17.

Tims’ letter opens with a statement that it is hard for teachers to feel appreciated, adding that teachers should be appreciated every day, not just during the first week of May.

“We should be appreciated for the longest stretch without a break, hanging on until Thanksgiving,” Tims wrote.

For Lake Shore Public Schools, the first day for students in 2016-17 was Sept. 6. The district had a half day on Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving. School resumed Nov. 28.

That meant the longest stretch without a multiday break (teachers had Nov. 8 off due to elections) was 55 school days. The Thanksgiving break was Thanksgiving Thursday and one school day.

When they returned from Thanksgiving, teachers then had 18 more school days scheduled before the holiday break that ran from Dec. 22 to Jan. 4. That meant an additional nine weekdays off. Christmas Day and New Year's Day fell on a Sunday that year.

“We should be appreciated in December, when holiday fever hits and all the students get Santa brain,” Tims wrote. “Some of at the high school and middle school have all news names to learn and seating arrangements to figure out.”

Lake Shore teachers were given a combined eight nonholiday weekdays off in February, March and April.

“We should be appreciated in February, March and April,” Tims wrote. “Months were everyone hangs on until mid-winter break ... and then hangs on until spring break.”

After spring break ended and school resumed April 10, teachers had one holiday and two other weekdays off, dispersed among 49 more school days until the school year ended June 15. Classes resumed September 4.