LANSING — As the Republican candidates for governor are set to debate this Wednesday and Thursday, a reminder that one of John James’ companies took nearly $2 million in tax breaks under the Snyder administration but failed to create the 108 jobs he promised—and instead cut jobs.
As James now runs for a third time statewide, the issue of him failing to create jobs has come roaring back, with rivals Mike Cox and Perry Johnson both taking aim. Last week, Cox accused James of being the “original corporate phony” and told James that “Gov. Snyder even had to throw you out of his MEDC program!” Johnson reposted an AI graphic of James pocketing money and failing to create jobs.
“John James’ record is one of broken and failed promises. James was given tax breaks under the promise that he’d create jobs, but he failed to do so and instead cut jobs,” said Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Derrick Honeyman. “Whether it was cutting jobs then or voting to cut healthcare now, John James always puts himself first and others last.”
Read more below from James’ failed 2020 Senate campaign:
Detroit Metro Times: GOP Senate candidate John James doesn’t refute our story about his company failing to create promised jobs after getting tax break
- A recent Metro Times cover story looked into a claim often made by Republican Senate candidate John James on the campaign trail: that he grew Renaissance Global Logistics — his family’s Detroit-based company that he ran since 2012 — from $35 million to $137 million in revenue, adding “100 jobs in Michigan and east of the Mississippi” in the process.
- Documents obtained by Metro Times, however, showed that the company lost its tax-exempt status after failing to produce the jobs it promised, and indeed appeared to have actually lost jobs during that time — all while James earned at least $1.6 million in salary and up to $2 million in stock dividend income from his family’s company. Neither James nor his campaign would comment on the record to Metro Times for the story, likely because we’re not Fox News.
- But in a wide-ranging story looking at the race between James and incumbent Democrat Gary Peters in the Detroit Free Press, James did not refute the findings of the story.
Salon: GOP candidate John James’ companies hit with tax liens, got tax breaks for jobs they didn’t create
- The statement came after documents published by the Detroit Metro Times earlier this week showed that Renaissance Global Logistics, where James serves as chief executive officer, received $1.75 million in tax breaks from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) on the condition that the company create 108 new jobs prior to James becoming CEO. Instead, the company has lost more than 30 jobs after he took over, the outlet reported, adding that the “MEDC revoked its tax-exempt status after it failed to create the jobs it promised.”
- The report added that it does not appear that there was a “clawback” clause that would have required the company to pay back the taxes.
- James became CEO of the company in 2015, the year of the jobs creation deadline. In February 2016, the MEDC warned that the company had 90 days to meet the condition or have its tax status revoked. The company sought an extension until the end of 2017, citing the auto industry’s struggles. But the MEDC said in a 2017 memo that the company “failed to create one-hundred eight (108) new jobs by December 31, 2015 as required per the agreement.”
- Crain’s Detroit later reported that the company failed to create a single job in Michigan during James’ tenure between 2012 and 2017.
- The report appears to contradict claims made by James during his previous unsuccessful 2018 Senate bid.
- “Send a job creator to Washington who understands that working-Michiganders are looking for a fair hand up, not a free handout,” he tweeted in 2017.
- The campaign did not comment on the report.
