State Rep. Donni Steele on Thursday released the following statement after voting against several corporate welfare plans passed this week that would use tax dollars to fund various tax incentive programs creating the Michigan Innovation Fund, and tax credits for research and development, politically-favored community organizations, startups, and data centers.

“We saw corporate welfare galore pass the House this week. Republicans and Democrats joined together to dole out taxpayer dollars to everyone other than the people who earned them. Last week, people came out in record numbers to demand the state embrace a strong, conservative economic future. Our infrastructure is crumbling, and school safety is still drastically underfunded, yet we spent session this week courting big businesses who don’t deserve our tax dollars in the first place.

“It’s time for state government to consider relief for the people who have been paying into the system for decades. There are those among us who have dutifully paid taxes and contributed to society for their entire lives; it’s those people and their businesses that deserve tax breaks, not more corporate welfare. As Milton Friedman would say: ‘if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government.”

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