Ford subsidies add up

At $690,000 per job, cost tallies up to much more than other deals

BY DAVID EGGERT

LANSING — Michigan notched a win with Ford Motor Co.’s decision to build a $3.5 billion, 2,500-job electric vehicle battery factory in Marshall. But the deal will not come cheaply.

e state will provide signi cantly more money for the project than for other major business expansions announced since the creation of a new fund to lure companies 15 months ago.

e cost is expected to total $1.7 billion, or about $693,000 a job, or $1 billion and $384,000 per job if only cash, but not a special tax break, is factored in.

$1.7 billion in total subsidies.

$1.0 billion excluding site preparation.

e spending will be far more than what is being disbursed for other top projects bene ting from the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund or, in some cases, a direct appropriation enacted into law by the Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. e account was formed in late 2021 after Dearborn-based Ford chose to locate EV assembly and battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky.

“I believe that we paid a premium for Ford to tell a good story, which is: ‘We created this fund because we lost Ford, and now we’ve attracted Ford.’

See FORD on Page 18