Almost five years ago in 2006, the state of Michigan granted Google a $38 million tax credit in exchange for its pledge to create some 1,000 jobs in the next five years.  Well, the five years are up and, according to the Detroit Free Press, the search engine mammoth will only reveal that it has over 250 employees in the Wolverine State.

Generally, in order to benefit from tax credit incentives, companies are required to produce the new jobs up front.  Not so with Google.  The Free Press reports that in Google’s case, the company need only maintain 75 positions for the first five years of the deal to obtain 100% of the benefit.  Only after the first five years do more strict guidelines come into play.

To downplay the fewer jobs than promised, Google points to the almost $1 billion in revenue and other residuals it brought to Michigan advertisers and non-profits through its site’s services.