MIDLAND, Mich. — In pushing to renew a program to redistribute hundreds of millions of tax dollars to select corporations, Gov. Whitmer falsely said at a press conference last week that “Good Jobs for Michigan” subsidies were used by Pfizer to build the manufacturing plant that shipped out the COVID vaccine.

In a press release and at the news conference announcing her “COVID Recovery Plan,” Gov. Whitmer said:

The Good Jobs for Michigan program provides Michigan businesses with a crucial tool to create jobs and thrive in our state. Little known fact, but Pfizer was the first business to utilize Good Jobs for Michigan and did so to build their sterile drug manufacturing plant in Portage, creating 450 good paying jobs. That's right, the same Portage, Michigan plant where the first doses of Pfizer's safe, effective and approved vaccine shipped from at the end of last year that gave all of us such pride to see on the national news, Michigan being the epicenter of hope. Pfizer is proof that Good Jobs for Michigan legislation can boost our economy and create jobs.

However, the Mackinac Center’s news website, Michigan Capitol Confidential, confirmed through local officials on Friday that this statement is false. The officials told Capitol Confidential that Pfizer has yet to apply for a building permit for the facility included in the Good Jobs For Michigan deal. While the company did make facility upgrades to develop the vaccine, those were not part of the deal with the state.

Public statements made previously by Pfizer align with this. In July 2018, the company said that the facility supported by the GJFM program would not be constructed until 2021 and not fully operational until 2024.

"The governor exploited the good news of Pfizer's vaccine work to justify unrelated corporate welfare,” said Michael LaFaive, senior director of fiscal policy for the Mackinac Center. “It is not uncommon for politicians pushing corporate handouts to engage in aggrandizing puffery or hyperbole, but this may take such claims to a new level.”

The Good Jobs for Michigan program allows a state board to select major corporate projects to receive special tax incentives. If a company adds a certain number of jobs paying higher than average wages, the individual income taxes of those new employees that otherwise would have gone to the state are captured by the company. The state signed deals over a two-year period before the program sunset at the end of 2019.

In 2020, a proposal to extend the program through 2024 and increase its deal making capacity by $300 million was rejected by bipartisan legislative opposition. Past Mackinac Center research has found similar programs to be ineffective and suggests the money redistributed to these companies be used to lower the overall tax rate on everyone or spent on more worthy programs that benefit all Michiganders.