Michigan Economic Development Corporation Sued for Alleged FOIA Violation over Pure Michigan

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy (MCPP) is suing the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), saying it won’t explain how it calculates the return on investment for its Pure Michigan tourism program.

MCPP requested the documents via the the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

For years, the state has claimed that the Pure Michigan advertising campaign boosts Michigan’s economy. In 2020, the MEDC claimed the Pure Michigan campaign generated $8.79 in state revenue for every $1 spent.

The lawsuit claims the MEDC has redirected or ignored public records requests for more than a year that seek the methodology used to generate the above return on investment of how the agency spends significant amounts of taxpayer money.

“Given the importance of citizens’ ability to understanding how the State is spending their tax dollars, such a lack of transparency is both unacceptable and illegal,” the suit says.

The MEDC declined to comment.

MCPP requested the records because its own 2016 analysis of the Pure Michigan campaign using public data found that the spending had no meaningful impact on state tax revenues.

On Nov. 6, 2020, MCPP senior director of fiscal policy Michael LaFaive filed a FOIA seeking how the MEDC calculates such a high return on investment. The lawsuit says MEDC partially granted the request in February 2021 but ignored the portion asking for Pure Michigan’s calculations.

After months of back and forth, the MCPP requested records from contractor Tourism Economics, which were denied… (Excerpt from The Michigan Star)