The Michigan Democratic Party platform takes a very strong stand against giving favors to corporations:

With billions in corporate welfare, subsidies, tax shelters and tax cuts, large corporations and the wealthiest individuals pay less than their fair share of the tax burden. This forces working people and small businesses to pay more than their fair share... In Michigan, the overall tax burden for corporations is less than zero. This is not only unjust; this is economically unsustainable.

This is a statement most people would probably agree with. It’s supposed to be a platform representing the Democratic party in Michigan and its representatives.

But it is contradicted by the actions Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has taken while her party controlled the state House and Senate. The last two years has seen an unprecedented rise is select incentives for corporations.

The Michigan Legislature has approved of $4.6 billion in corporate incentives this term. The top approvers of corporate welfare in Michigan are all Democrats. Dozens of legislative Democrats have voted to approve 100% of incentive votes that came across their desks. Most of the Democrats in the state senate voted for more than $5 billion in special business breaks. There are bills on the table during the current “lame duck” session that could raise that to $11 billion in corporate welfare — or more than $1,100 for every man, woman and child in the state.

And what are Michigan citizens getting for this money? Very little. Here are some of the biggest deals the current legislature has approved and the number of jobs these deals are projected to produce.

Keep in mind that these numbers are the best-case scenario. The history of Michigan’s corporate welfare apparatus shows that only a tiny percentage of the projected jobs are ever actually “created.”

In political ads, lawmakers mostly mention roads, schools, “cutting taxes,” and social issues. But for the past two years, it’s hard to argue against the fact that the biggest budget priority for Michigan Democrats has been special favors for select corporations.

Elections are almost never won or lost based on one issue. But Michigan House Democrats severely underperformed this November. Press releases and ads tried to focus on other priorities. But lawmakers had a lot less money to spend elsewhere because they spent so much on corporate favors.

Let’s hope the incoming Michigan Legislature goes in a different direction. Our recent report lists 101 recommendations for them — none of which results in ineffective, expensive, unfair favors. These include:

1. Making Michigan a right-to-work state again.
2. Eliminating all select subsidies, incentives, corporate welfare and industry-specific tax favors.
3. Passing education opportunity scholarships, where the full foundation allowance follows students to the school of their choice.
4. Creating a competitive electricity market to drive down rates and boost reliability for homeowners and businesses.
5. Requiring that all significant rules and regulations proposed by state agencies be approved by the Legislature.
6. Passing a sustainable Michigan budget by capping spending increases at the rate of inflation plus population growth.
7. Cutting the state income tax back below 4% and setting it on a path to roll back to zero to match high-growth states like Tennessee, Texas, Florida and Washington.
8. Eliminating pork spending by requiring all targeted spending to go through the normal legislative process and be independently evaluated against other projects and services.
9. Regularly reviewing each of the 180-plus occupational licensing laws on the books and ensuring jobs are being licensed only when that regulation directly improves public health and safety.
10. Ditching Certificate of Need laws to allow medical facilities to open and expand their services and care.
11. Scrapping the “three-tier” system for alcohol control, which severely limits competition for manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
12. Placing guardrails on gubernatorial and administrative emergency powers by curtailing unilateral authority.

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