LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Center) – The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) disbursed almost $300 million in taxpayer funds to non-profits across the state in 2024. While the agency’s mission focuses on job creation and economic growth, many of the funded projects appear to prioritize artistic and cultural initiatives over direct economic development.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, writer Anna Hoffman of the Enjoyer website obtained a 34-page list of non-profits funded by MEDC in 2024. She explained, “Not only are some ‘for profit’ job-creation projects listed as non-profits on the report, but there are hundreds of smaller contributions to local charities, with a heavy focus on the arts.”

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Hoffman continued, “Under the guise of ‘economic development,’ MEDC gave grants in 2024 to numerous symphonies, operas, museums, arts and cultural groups, private schools, and religious groups, many with a controversial commitment to DEI or having no relationship to economic development altogether.”

DEI, dance troupes, and dollar signs.

Grants Hoffman uncovered on the list included $109,500 to a pottery studio; nearly $50,000 to a Mexican ballet school in Flint; $8,750 to the Top of the Lake Snowmobile Museum; $150,000 to an Illinois-based research lab; $75,375 to an organization committed to using “restorative art to disrupt historical systems of oppression;” $61,215 to the Society for Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartets; and $51,550 to “A Host of People, Inc.” – a self-described “Detroit-based multi- racial, queer centered ensemble theater company.”

Still no jobs, but plenty of performances.

Michiganders’ tax dollars are picking up the tab for these groups and more thanks to the MEDC – even though their mission is supposed to be job creation. And when the MEDC does pour money into “job-boosting” projects, they tend to be the kind no one asked for – like those sprawling, unpopular megasites sprouting up across the state.