Whitmer announces new economic development plan, proposes new funds to attract companies
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MACKINAC ISLAND – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a new economic development strategy Wednesday at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference while affirming her administration’s approach to luring companies to create new jobs in Michigan with taxpayer-funded subsidies.
Dubbed "Make It In Michigan," Whitmer said the program is made up of three types of investments: those in projects, people and places. She offered few specifics on the full slate of proposals the strategy includes, promising to lay them out in greater detail in the near future. But she said when it comes to landing new projects, the program proposes a "Make it In Michigan Transformational Brownfield Fund" and "Make it in Michigan Advanced Manufacturing and Clean Tech Competitiveness Fund."
The brownfield fund will focus on preparing sites for new investments, Whitmer said. "In Michigan we have a lot of properties that need a little TLC to be ready for their second life. Let's convert brownfield and other abandoned property into productive spaces ready for investment," she said.
Meanwhile, the competitiveness fund would help Michigan secure federal dollars from the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act to boost domestic semiconductor and clean energy sectors, Whitmer said.
More: How Michigan decides to spend lots of public money on economic development deals
In one way, the event marked a stark contrast from the previous year when Whitmer joined Democratic and GOP legislative leaders to celebrate new jobs in Michigan promised by Ford Motor Co. supported by a $100.8 million grant from the state. But missing from the announcement Wednesday were any Republican lawmakers. Instead, Whitmer stood alongside Democratic lawmakers and officials from her administration.
"We're standing here together today because we're on the same page about economic development," Whitmer said. For now, Republicans appear to stand on a different page.
Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, said Whitmer had no discussion with Republican legislative leaders about the proposal rolled out Wednesday but wanted them to show up. "But if you're not willing to actually share and have a conversation, that's one-sided," he said.
In another way, the event marked a continuation of Whitmer's approach to securing new manufacturing jobs with taxpayer-funded incentives. She gave no indication she plans to abandon the practice or heed calls from lawmakers to change the process for approving funds for companies planning to create new jobs in the state.
Whitmer celebrated bipartisan support for the creation of a fund a year and a half ago to help land big projects. But recent votes to approve money for specific projects passed with little or no GOP support, a shift from previous votes when Republicans controlled the Legislature.
Nesbitt said he's consistently opposed such deals. "I have a pretty solid track record over the last 12 years of not supporting cash handouts to multinational corporations," he said. "I'm not a crony capitalist."
Whitmer said parts of the "Make It In Michigan" initiative came from "feedback from the businesses community about what we could do that will help move things faster." The state's economic development agency has seen record interest from businesses seeking state support to expand in Michigan or move to the state, Whitmer said.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer announces new plan to grow business in Michigan
