LANSING — State lawmakers are taking another look at business incentive programs following the pullback of public support for Gotion’s Green Charter Township battery project.
The $2.3 billion facility was set to receive $175 million from the state, until that support was canceled last week.
The effort is one of several that have failed to get off the ground, despite millions of dollars in support — that’s leading some officials to say the state should reevaluate its approach to economic development.
“I’ve been talking quite a bit with governor Whitmer about the future of economic development in Michigan and the mistakes that were made with this Gotion deal,” said House Speaker Matt Hall, (R) District 42, Richland Twp.
Lawmakers say the pullback illustrates issues with the the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund, also known as SOAR.
Since 2021, SOAR has received and distributed tens of millions of dollars to companies like General Motors, Ford and Gotion.
And since then, projects have seen continued delays or lackluster returns on investment.
Lawmakers say that those millions could be better spent, including support for smaller companies and communities that are seeking new projects.
“We’ve got to learn from this as we put together the future of economic development for the state of Michigan,” Hall said. “We do not want our government to repeat this Gotion deal.”
Continued skepticism of the SOAR program led to its defunding by lawmakers in this year’s budget, despite the governor seeking half a billion dollars in support.
“We still want to compete for careers in the future, and we still want to help land deals for places like Big Rapids — but we’ve got to go back to the drawing board, and we got to get community buy in,” Hall said.
Some lawmakers have cast the state’s approach as simply bribing companies to set up shop in Michigan without addressing the issues that cause the state to lose business.
“They’re looking at these other states, and they’re saying, ‘well, they have community college incentive programs, their roads are better, their schools are better — what does Michigan have to offer?,” said Rep. Joey Andrews, (D) District 38, St. Joseph. “And we’re like, ‘how many billions?’”
Earlier this year, a $63 billion Sandisk project in southeast Michigan fell through despite more than $6 billion in state and local incentives being offered.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers say that Michigan needs to do something different to compete with other states.
“We’ve just been, you know — kind of half measures with like quarter effort, and then we’re getting marginal results,” Andrews said.