MichMash: Michigan Senate passes significant action for economic development

The Michigan Senate is looking to build the state’s economy through tax incentives. MichMash host Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow sat down with Quentin Messer, chief executive and economic competitiveness officer for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, to discuss the state of economic development in Michigan.  

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In this episode:

• The Michigan Senate passing bills to stimulate economic development
• What constitutes a livable wage
• Building the state’s economy through tax incentives

The Senate passed a flurry of bills this week that supporters believe will spur greater economic development in the state.

The legislation package — which passed after MichMash’s interview with Messer — would create a research and development tax credit, resurrect a jobs program that expired in 2019, and reshape an economic incentives program known as the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve, or SOAR fund, aimed at attracting large-scale business investments. The bills would also rebrand the SOAR Fund as the Make it in Michigan Fund.

Messer said economic development programs like SOAR is just one tool in the state’s toolbox for attracting businesses and industries to the state.

“The number of SOAR projects pales in comparison to the almost 100 projects [the MEDC has] done annually that rely on the Michigan Business Development Program,” he said, referring to an MEDC program for individuals looking to start or expand a business in the state.

Messer says while programs like the Make it in Michigan Fund will be shaped by elected officials as the bills move through the Legislature, the program and others like it are largely driven by federal incentive programs and the macro economic environment.

For that reason, he said, “I think that it’s important to have a holistic, broad set of tools.”

Messer also stressed the importance that every job we incentivize in the state through these programs are above the medium regional wage, adding that the jobs should “provide a pathway for not only professional growth and development, but also for men and women, our friends and neighbors, to, the longer they work there, to be able to have opportunities to see greater wage growth and greater income growth.”

MPRN’s Colin Johnson contributed to this report.

More from WDET:

• MEDC awards German EV company $1.5M grant to establish headquarters in Corktown
• Detroit Evening Report: City awarded $14.5M in grants for five development projects
• MichMash: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shares key points from her State of the State address

More from Gongwer News Service:

• Whitmer Doesn’t Like Siphoned SOAR Funds; Tate Talks Transparency