For decades, Michigan lawmakers have sworn that corporate subsidies create prosperity. Yet the Strategic Outreach Attraction Reserve, Michigan’s largest subsidy program, has spent $670 million in three after its inception and has not created any jobs, according to a new report.

Politicians promised that the SOAR would create 8,812 jobs.

In 2021, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Senate Bill 844, which created the Strategic Outreach Attraction Reserve and authorized the state to hand out $1 billion to select companies. “Today, I am proud to sign another bipartisan bill that will build on Michigan’s growing economic momentum, attract billions in investment, and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs,” Whitmer said in 2022. “The bipartisan legislation will help us grow, attract, and retain businesses in Michigan, ensuring we can lead the future of mobility and electrification and bring supply chains of chips and batteries home to Michigan.”

Two significant projects attracted by the fund have either been paused or shrunk as few Michigan consumers have adopted electric vehicles. About 50,000 EVs are registered statewide, according to the federal government. The biggest barriers to EV adoption are higher cost compared to standard vehicles, range anxiety, and a sparse charging network, according to S&P Mobility, Science Direct and Kelly Blue Book.

General Motors received $480 million to redo its Orion Township assembly plant to build full-size EV pickups. The plant will produce the GMC Sierra Denali EV and the Chevrolet Silverado EV, according to GM’s website.  It has created zero jobs so far.

Ultium Cells LLC received $120 million. It has created no jobs.

The firm Our Next Energy, which was founded in 2020, received over $70 million. In 2023, the company laid off 25% of its employees, CapCon reported.

Ford made headlines with its promised EV factory in Marshall before it cut projected spending by $1 billion and 800 jobs, securing a 2023 award for the worst economic development deal of the year.

The Michigan House road funding plan would cut $1 billion from business subsidy programs and instead use it to fund roads. It also would draw on dedicated corporate income tax revenue, taking it away from the state’s general funds and putting it toward roads.

The SOAR was poorly designed, said James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

“It allows companies to cash in on taxpayer subsidies without having to create jobs,” Hohman told CapCon. “Lawmakers must wait years to ask for taxpayer money back if deals fail to deliver. It’s good that the House lawmakers are working to redirect this money to roads.”

Only one of every 11 jobs promised by Michigan public officials in business subsidy announcements actually gets created, according to a Mackinac Center for Public Policy study that analyzed two decades of government grants to private businesses.

Michigan has made little progress in passing laws that could constrain a governor’s emergency powers since the state led the nation in embracing destructive policies during the COVID-19 events. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asserted significant control over state government, the economy and social activity over a three-year period. She did not rescind her last order until May 11, 2023.

“These executive orders are not a suggestion,” said Whitmer in 2020. “They’re not optional. They’re not helpful hints. And I expect all Michiganders to comply with the law.”

Her orders, which included banning the sale of gardening seeds while allowing alcohol purchases, baffled Michigan residents and drew ridicule even from mainstream media. Whitmer also unilaterally prohibited people from using motorboats and getting haircuts, among other activities. The state's economy, schools, and population growth have all been slow to recover in the years since the emergency orders.

Michigan Capitol Confidential reported in 2021 that the science Whitmer cited to support her orders did not exist. When the governor’s administration was asked for the science, it offered no documents.

Not all of Whitmer’s pandemic-era orders were in effect for the entire three years.

Her last pandemic order, issued May 11, 2023, was to rescind the remaining seven orders. Those orders included requirements for reporting COVID deaths, which dated as far back as April 4, 2020.

The governor was still issuing executive orders as recently as October 2022, two-and-a-half years after her first orders of March 2020.

Of the seven remaining orders, three involved safety, vaccine, and testing requirements for residents and staff at residential care facilities.

The Whitmer administration faced criticism over orders that likely contributed to deaths of nursing home patients. Michigan allowed COVID-19-positive nursing home patients to remain among the general population at the facilities.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was not forthcoming with information requested about COVID deaths in nursing homes, the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation's Steve Delie told a Michigan House Oversight Committee hearing on nursing home deaths.