LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan taxpayers are getting fleeced at the Whitmer-run taxpayer owned ATM where every withdrawal goes to big business and every deposit comes straight out of your paycheck. Lansing calls it “economic development,” but just like at a casino, the house almost always wins. In this case, the house is Michigan Governor Whitmer and her corporate pals, whether in government or in corporations.

Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer and her Democratic allies in government and business seem to have made a pastime out of handing over Michiganders’ hard-earned tax dollars to corporations and massive megasite projects – all under the convenient banner of “job creation.”

What could you do with $76,000 extra dollars in your pocket?

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Case in point: according to Bridge Michigan, since Whitmer took office in in 2019, the state has tossed out nearly $1 billion in subsidies to big corporations, promising tens of thousands of shiny new jobs. The return? Just 13,079 jobs – a measly 22% of the target. Do the math and you’ll see each job cost taxpayers about $76,000 per job.

For that price, Michiganders could have bought a new Ford F-150, put some money away for retirement or paid off their medical bills. Instead, we get a shiny press releases from the governor’s office and some ribbon-cuttings.

State-funded slush fund?

And now comes the cherry on this billion-dollar sundae: the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) – the very outfit in charge of doling out your money to corporations – is tied up in its own scandal involving Fay Beydoun, a prominent Arab-American businesswoman and Democratic fundraiser, who secured a $20 million earmark in Michigan’s 2022 budget for Global Link International, a nonprofit she incorporated on July 11, 2022, after the budget’s approval on July 1.

Millions were spent on salaries and questionable expenses like a $4,500 coffeemaker. The Attorney General’s office raided both MEDC offices and Beydoun’s home and has also named MEDC CEO Quentin Messer Jr. and senior advisor Josh Hundt as potential targets in the probe.

Pet projects continue.

Regardless, Whitmer’s MEDC keeps pumping out our money. Just this week, Gov. Whitmer and the MEDC proudly announced nearly $4.1 million in grants to prop up projects from Detroit to Calumet – everything from apartments over a bar in Dowagiac to a boutique hotel in the U.P. Even a former funeral home in Manistique is cashing in with help from a Whitmer check.

So, remind me – why exactly are taxpayers underwriting corporations, cronies, and cappuccino machines? We were told it was for “jobs.” But jobs for whom? And who are the folks actually getting the big bucks out of these deals?

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If the MEDC were a business, it would’ve been bankrupt years ago. Instead, it’s flush with our tax dollars to give away while everyday Michiganders are left asking why we’re always the ones stuck with the tab.