by Scott McClallen
In a video released Monday morning, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer touted Democrat’s accomplishments in their first 100 days of office.
She again claimed that she “secured” 35,000 auto jobs since 2019.
“Since I took office, we’ve secured over 35,000 auto jobs that will help us lead the future of mobility and electrification,” Whitmer said in the video.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that number isn’t accurate.
James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said Michiganders should look at actual numbers instead of political math.
“We pay good money to bureaucrats to track job growth. We should listen to the data they report more than the politicians who ignore it,” Hohman told The Center Square in an email.
“Unfortunately, Michigan is falling behind,” Hohman continued. “With employment down by 117,873 people, a 2.5 percent loss, Michigan has the fifth weakest job recovery among the states.”
Whitmer’s office hasn’t responded to a request for clarification about the 35,000 auto jobs claim.
“The state is not going to turn around by offering select companies billions of taxpayer dollars,” Hohman wrote. “The deals the governor has authorized are ineffective at creating jobs, unfair to the businesses that don’t get them, and expensive to the state budget.”
Whitmer has promised about $3.3 billion in subsidies for electric vehicle makers, but auto makers are struggling as they pivot to electric vehicles. General Motors recently bought out 5,000 workers to avoid layoffs as it transitions to electric vehicles, as Ford announced it will lose $3 billion on EVs this year.
Only 25,181 EVs are registered statewide.
Whitmer said the state will create 2,500 “good-paying jobs”, which will bring an average wage of $45,000 annually, for Ford’s BlueOval factory in Marshall that received a total of $1.6 billion of taxpayer subsidies.
Whitmer said Michigan took “major steps forward to create manufacturing jobs and bring the supply chain home to Michigan from overseas.”
“We won an $800 million investment from General Motors, a $3.5 billion battery investment creating 2,500 jobs from Ford, and hundreds more jobs from other companies to make auto parts, chips, and clean energy right here in Michigan,” Whitmer said.
In the video, Whitmer boasted of rolling back the retirement tax, repealing the 1931 law criminalizing abortion, and boosting the earned income tax credit to leave more money in Michiganders’ pockets.
In the coming months, Whitmer said she would sign her fifth balanced budget that will “lower costs” while making “record investments” in education, talent, public safety, infrastructure, and economic development.
“From the steps toward Pre-K for all, saving families $10,000 a year, to free breakfast and lunch for all 1.4 million public school students, to a sales tax cut on electric vehicles up to $2,400, to grants for small business, support for clean energy manufacturing and health care expansion, we are taking several actions to lower costs on the issues that matter most to people’s lives,” Whitmer said.
Whitmer said Michigan is slated to bring home billions of federal resources “to lead the future of cars, batteries, chips, and clean energy, creating tens of thousands of jobs.”
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Scott McClallen is a staff writer covering Michigan and Minnesota for The Center Square. A graduate of Hillsdale College, his work has appeared on Forbes.com and FEE.org.
Image “Gov. Gretchen Whitmer” by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
