Tax incentives are like mother's milk to local economic developers who use them to attract new businesses and jobs.

Hardly a significant new investment is made in their communities without the use of a property tax abatement or business tax credit, local economic developers tell me.

So it's easy to understand why they freaked out when many of the seven candidates for governor in the August primary talked seriously about either eliminating incentives or severely limiting their use.

The two remaining candidates, Democrat Virg Bernero and Republican Rick Snyder, espoused the most moderate views on tax incentives in the primary campaign.

But local economic developers still worry that even the discussion of scaling back incentives may cause potential investors to look at other states that aren't debating the value of tax incentive programs.

"It's dangerous when we talk about replacing incentives," said Birgit Klohs, president of The Right Place Inc., a local economic development agency in Grand Rapids. "People read this stuff."

And many of the people reading it are site selection specialists who recommend to business clients where they should locate their factories, offices and research centers.

That's why local developers, through the Michigan Economic Developers Association, are taking their cause directly to Bernero and Snyder.

They're developing a position paper on the future of economic development that will call for maintaining tax incentives and reforming state business taxes.

MEDA plans to issue its recommendations at its annual conference in Traverse City next month and present them to Bernero and Snyder.

Conservatives advocate eliminating targeted tax incentives and cutting business taxes across the board to create what they say would be a level playing field for all businesses.

But Tino Breithaupt, senior vice president of economic development at the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce, says Michigan needs incentives, plus a more competitive tax structure.

"We need to improve the business climate and offer simple, easy-to-understand incentives," said Breithaupt, who is serving on MEDA's task force that is drafting recommendations to the gubernatorial candidates.

If there's one thing Michigan policymakers excel at, it's complexity.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the Legislature created the Michigan Business Tax in 2007 as a replacement for the much-hated and convoluted Single Business Tax.

But many say the MBT, which basically taxes gross receipts and profits, is even more bewildering than the tax it replaced.

"To be quite honest, I'd like to have the SBT back," Klohs said.

Breithaupt said Michigan's tax incentive programs have been expanded and amended so many times that it's difficult even for local economic developers to keep them all straight.

MEDA likely will call for streamlining incentives to make them simpler and, hopefully, more effective, Breithaupt says.

Local economic developers say the growing complexity of incentives and regulatory requirements are slowing project approvals, putting Michigan at a disadvantage with Indiana, Texas and other states that respond more quickly.

"When a business decides it is going to make an investment, it doesn't want to spend 120 days waiting for approvals, Breithaupt said.

Bernero and Snyder should carefully consider the upcoming recommendations from MEDA.

It's the local economic developers--with their "feet on the street," as Breithaupt puts it--who know what businesses want to bring much-needed jobs to Michigan.

E-mail Rick Haglund at haglund.rick@gmail.com