Politicians love arguing about money almost as much as middle schoolers love arguing about who farted. The latest bickerfest in Michigan is over the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve fund (SOAR), which was supposed to invest big bucks to bring thousands of jobs to the state. The big question is: has it worked?
Here are Five Fast Facts about the SOAR program's results:
- 💸 Lofty Goals - SOAR was designed to attract major business investments to Michigan through subsidies and site development funding. Michigan is throwing around cash like confetti!
- 🔍 Approved vs Actual - One issue to understand is the difference between money approved and money actually spent - roughly $2.2 billion has been approved for projects so far, but only about $1.3 billion has actually been spent. Um, okay, the accuracy is good but the point still remains, right?
- 0️⃣ Big Fat Zero - State Sen. Mallory McMorrow claimed in a recent debate that Michigan had spent more than $2.5 billion on corporate incentives through SOAR but created “zero jobs,” and her opponents are pouncing on that like starving leopards.
- ❓ The Jobs Question - So were jobs created? Companies receiving SOAR funding reported creating 1,846 jobs. That’s not zero, unless your calculator is powered by interpretive dance. However...the state has not yet independently verified all those jobs because projects are still in progress, so the official count is technically still zero. You decide who's right on that one.
- 🤔 The Even Bigger Question - Some might say this is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Whether it's $1.3 billion or $2.5 billion and zero jobs or 1,846 jobs...is the program really a success?
🔥Bottom line: While the politicians are nitpicking the tiny details, the point remains that Michigan’s SOAR program has burned through big bucks and generated little more than debate about whether taxpayers are getting enough bang for those bucks. Using a non-interpretive dance calculator, it seems to us that unless each (potential) job from the program is paying over $700k, it doesn't seem like Michiganders are getting a lot of bang.
It's time to start thinking about whether these politicians are responsible enough to deserve your vote this fall, don't you think?
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