Mackinac Center for Public Policy
For the most part, Michigan lawmakers kept an expansion of the state’s corporate handout complex at bay last year, and in 2021, they should trim taxpayer subsidies for corporations and industry.
The money would be better spent addressing higher priorities.
In December, legislators rebuffed a second effort to authorize $300 million in new business subsidies for the so-called “Good Jobs for Michigan” program they allowed to expire in 2019. Some lawmakers wanted to resuscitate the program, but they saw those efforts stymied by skeptical lawmakers. That was a big holiday gift to taxpayers.
Spending taxpayer money to land big business was bound to be ineffectual. As I noted in 2019, less than 1% of the net increase in jobs in Michigan from 1990 to 2015 were the result of a corporate relocation, a common goal of subsidies. A program in Kansas operated much like Good Jobs for Michigan. A study of it found that companies that received incentives w
For the most part, Michigan lawmakers kept an expansion of the state’s corporate handout complex at bay last year, and in 2021, they should trim taxpayer subs
Michigan spends
Nationally, licensing has grown dramatically.
In 1950, less than 5 percent of workers were licensed; now about 30 percent of workers are. Almost every state licenses doctors, lawyers, dentists, opticians and other technical and specialized occupations and many of these requirements are similar across the states. But many states also require licenses for a range of other jobs, including auctioneers, court clerks, fishermen, floor sanders, painters, interior designers and tree trimmers. Altogether, Michigan licenses about 160 occupations.
Licensure Requirements in Michigan:
1 exam
1 exam