Michigan needs knowledge-sector jobs, says Crain’s Detroit Business columnist
Chad Livengood of Crain’s Detroit Business says Michigan is attracting the wrong kind of jobs that won’t have a long enough payoff in the long run.
Michigan companies are constantly vying for subsidies and incentives from lawmakers with the promise of creating more jobs. This week, GM announced that it will invest over $7 billion in Michigan through 2024 to increase electric truck production and to build a new EV battery cell plant, which will yield thousands of Michigan jobs. But GM didn’t do this simply out of goodwill: to get these projects done, $600 million of direct Michigan taxpayer money is going to GM and its business partner LG Energy.
.We really have lowered the bar in the thirst to get a battery plant.” — Chad Livengood, Crain’s Detroit Business
Listen: How Michigan’s auto companies lobbied the government to spur economic activity in the state.
Guest
Chad Livengood is the senior editor at Crain’s Detroit Business covering public policy. He wrote a column titled, “Why Ford’s Corktown project may mean more to Michigan’s future than the next battery plant.” Livengood says Michigan is attracting the wrong kind of jobs that won’t have a long enough payoff in the long run. “We really have lowered the bar in the thirst to get a battery plant,” he says.
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