Tag: Taxpayer Abuse

A Michigan-based company slated to produce lithium-ion polymer batteries for electric vehicles has instead kept production overseas, has failed to meet job targets outlined in a $150 million grant from the federal government, and has been reimbursed by the government for $842,000 in wasted work time, according to a U.S. Department of Energy Special Report released Wednesday.

The DOE says Holland, Mich.-based LG Chem Michigan misused part of a $150 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and has decided not to shift production from its plant in South Korea to Michigan. It painted a stark picture of wasted U.S. federal dollars.

"Until the shift in production takes place or some alternative use for the plant is developed, U.S. taxpayers will receive little direct benefit from a plant for which they provided up to half of the funding," the report said.

MORE

It never seems to end well.

LG Chem which promised 300 jobs, received a $150,000,000.00 Fed grant, $7,000,000. more in fed paid training and $700k in health coverage, has bored employees.  The employees, which might have been present at the federally funded $500,000.00 groundbreaking with special guest Barack Obama might need to hang around a little longer so that Michigan can cough up its promise of $125,000,000.00 in credits as well.

A little report worth watching.

A year from now this plant will be empty.

A Republican, Rick Snyder, is the father of the MEDC.  It was his baby, and lest anyone forget, it was created under the Republican Engler administration.  The MEDC, which has yet to produce a model that definitively demonstrates taking taxpayer funds, then giving those funds to hand picked "winners" produces net economic growth in our state.  The MEDC which essentially could be called a taxpayer funded venture capital scam.

The MEDC's MEGA, The state of Michigan through Tax Breaks, and the DOE,  which gave us that "success story" A123 systems.:

"When A123 Systems announced it was opening its lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Livonia in September 2010, then Gov. Jennifer Granholm wrote about it on the Huffington Post calling it "a Recovery Act success story."

But there have been troubles for A123 Systems in the 17 months since then despite a lot of state and federal aid to prop it up.

The state of Michigan gave it a $100 million MEGA tax credit that is contingent on the company creating 300 jobs by the end of 2016. A123 Systems also received another $41 million in tax breaks and subsidies from the state. The Department of Energy awarded A123 Systems a $249.1 million grant.

But the company has not been able to meet its own projections. For instance, on March 28, 2011 in an SEC filing, the company projected total revenue between $210 million to $225 million for 2011. Its latest report shows they had just $118 million of total revenue through the first three quarters of 2011 and reported a net loss of $172 million."

Yeah, that's a winner.

In fact doing so well, taxpayers should be happy to know that the top brass in the company thanks them for providing a generous raise.