Editor’s note: This blog is a follow-up to our 3-21-23 post, “The [Im]morality of Corporate Welfare. Let’s refresh the page on two high-profile welfare projects, slated to receive hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funding.
As a refresher, here are four characteristics of corporate welfare, and there are many, that make it immoral … 1) advocates lie about projected benefits of the projects (especially job creation); 2) government takes money from taxpayers against their wills and gives it to big corporations (legal plunder); 3) state governments compete against each other with that plundered revenue, as they covet the economic benefits promised to come from the proposed projects; and 4) some projects require an unequal yoking of U.S. and foreign (say, Communist Chinese Party) interests.
The decision is in on the Billerud (Swedish company) papermill expansion in Escanaba, a $1 billion proposed investment aimed at keeping the mill going for ‘generations’ to come. (Currently employing 800 workers, the future of the mill is now in question.) And the decision to invest is ‘no,’ even though the Michigan legislature promised the mill a $200 million subsidy, calling it a ‘transformational investment’ and a ‘truly historic opportunity.’ In May, Billerud realized that, due to Bidenomics (inflation and energy costs, especially) the “projected return on investment is not sufficiently attractive to proceed.” According to the Michigan Capitol Confidential, “They promised the moon and delivered nothing” – zip, zilch, zero, nada.
Why report this now? Well, we in northern Michigan need to keep in mind that whom we send to Lansing matters. Our rep in the 107th, Neil Friske, did not buy into the scheme and voted against the subsidy. His opponent, Parker Fairbairn, would have likely voted for it. (He’s all about taxpayer-subsidized economic development!) Fairbairn’s political patron, State Senator John Damoose, was one of four GOP senators who cast an ‘aye’ vote. Cam Cavitt, the rep for the 106th, voted for the give-away also. (He is being primaried by Todd Smalenberg, who opposes corporate welfare schemes.) In this primary, please vote for candidates who will push back AGAINST the socialist tsunami of the Democrats in Lansing.
What about the Marshall battery plant, a collaborative effort by Ford and CATL (a Chinese company that has been singled out by Congressman John Moolenaar, the chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, for being associated with the ‘prolific use of forced labor’)?
Originally, Ford planned a $3.5 billion investment, on 950 acres, creating 2500 jobs, with 1900 parking spaces, manufacturing 350,000 batteries per year. ‘Stung by EV losses,’ Ford’s plan now is $2.5 billion invested on a 500 acre plot, creating 1700 jobs, with 860 parking spaces, pumping out 200,000 batteries yearly. Voted for by Sen. Damoose and one other GOP senator (who is not from Marshall!). Lansing’s incentive package was more than $2 billion (scaled back a billion now). That’s more than $700,000 per job created! And the pushback in Marshall continues.
Elections matter. And continued communication with our elected officials matters too. “It’s not yours to give” is as true today as in the day that a farmer supposedly said it to his rep in Congress, Davy Crockett.
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