Center Cited on Jobs (or Lack Thereof)

A new study by the Center's Michael LaFaive, director of fiscal policy, and James Hohman, fiscal research analyst, figured prominently in media coverage across Michigan Sunday and today highlighting Michigan's inability to create jobs, despite various programs, subsidies and other give-aways.

A Detroit News editorial cited the report's findings that only about one-third of the jobs promised by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. came to fruition between 1995 and 2004.

Reporting Michigan also cited the study in a story Monday, using Walden Books' move to Ann Arbor in the mid-1990s as an example of one of the first of many MEGA deals that did not create as many jobs as originally planned.

Columnist George Weeks, writing in the Traverse City Record-Eagle, cited several statistics from the study, including the failure of the Michigan film incentive and the growing lack of transparency at the MEDC over time.

LaFaive also was quoted by the Livingston Daily in a story that says Michigan will have lost 1 million jobs by the end of this decade.

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