Many readers may be aware that Attorney General Dana Nessel said in June that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation was stonewalling her department’s investigation into a $20 million state grant. The corporation has a long history of such tactics: Stonewalling. Foot-dragging. Delay tactics. Non-response responses. The Mackinac Center has endured the MEDC’s lack of transparency and accountability for decades.

In fact, last week we sent a second letter demanding the Michigan Economic Development Corporation comply with our March 5 request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act. The corporation has been dragging its feet — “stonewalling,” if you will — since March.

It has been nearly six months, and we still await a portion of the documents we requested. The first batch was only released after we threatened a lawsuit. Perhaps this second letter will finally force the release of the remaining documents. We have been very patient over these months, gently prodding the agency to deliver those documents to which we are legally entitled.

I had previously asked for documents such as MEDC employee salaries, a worksheet of data for a failed subsidy deal and a few contracts between the state and several consultancies. Those were eventually delivered under threat of a lawsuit. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation continues to withhold, however, our request for email or other correspondence that mentions “James Hohman” or “Joann Crary” within a narrow date range.

James Hohman is the Mackinac Center’s director of fiscal policy. He is the author of “Front Page Failures,” a study that compared state-subsidized deals and related jobs promises reported on the front page of the Detroit Free Press (over 20 years) with what actually happened. He found that only 9% of promised jobs came to fruition. Joann Crary is president of a local economic development agency and a defender of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and its work. She has called the corporation “efficient and responsive.”

We disagree.

This isn’t the first time we have had to sue over transparency surrounding state subsidy programs.

Just this year we sued on behalf of the Detroit Free Press, which has been denied information about “transformational brownfield” incentives.

In 2022 we sued to obtain simple records to help us analyze outrageous claims about the returns on investment associated with the program. We have long criticized the agency for its secrecy over its Pure Michigan program.

We also participated in a lawsuit against the MEDC and its secrecy over the value of refundable tax credits for General Motors Co.

These involve just our legal work, but we’ve long struggled to get information from the corporation in a timely fashion. Back in 2005, the MEDC’s chief executive officer made credulity-straining claims in an op-ed about the agency’s alleged success.

Seeking to demonstrate otherwise, I submitted questions and official Freedom of Information Act requests. This took me on a months-long journey that ultimately required a legislator’s involvement. Once I obtained the data, I was able to show the CEO’s claims to be fatuous, but by then the debate had moved on.

Since then, we and others have also struggled to get information out of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The desire for greater transparency and accountability from the corporation has been a bipartisan affair, with lawmakers from both parties calling for reform of this failed agency.

The state’s jobs agencies have championed program after program that have failed to deliver on promises and cost state taxpayers billions and billions of dollars.

It’s no surprise that the agency keeps secrets. If taxpayers learned more about its shortcomings, they might wonder whether this expensive bureaucracy is necessary at all.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation needs more sunshine to fall on its operations. This could come by legislative action, attorney general raids, public interest lawsuits, or all of these together. The Mackinac Center will continue doing its part and is deeply grateful for what many lawmakers and the attorney general have tried or will try to do to bring this about.

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