Mystery company to take $259M from Michigan taxpayers

Michigan taxpayers are slated to give $259 million to a mystery company to build a semiconductor plant near Mundy Township in Genessee County.

The Charter Township of Mundy entered a nondisclosure agreement with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation on Sept. 9, 2022, which Michigan Capitol Confidential obtained through a records request.

State officials approved a total of $259 million in Strategic Site Readiness Program funds, which will go to local agencies involved in preparing a large parcel of land for development. The project could be eligible for more grants.

The township entered that agreement at least a year before voters discovered giveaway of state dollars. On Nov. 5, 2024, voters ousted township supervisor Tonya Ketzler and elected Jennifer Stainton, who opposed the giveaway.

“My position has been on the opposition side due to the lack of transparency on behalf of Mundy Township board members,” Stainton told CapCon in an email. “Signing a NDA is unacceptable to hide things from your elective public you represent. Until we see transparency from the township and from the Genesee Economic Alliance, my fight is to protect and serve my Community of Residents who put me in office.”

If the project advances, the taxpayer funds would appear to benefit Western Digital Technologies, a San Jose, California, company. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The Flint and Genesee Economic Alliance supports the project, said executive director Tyler Rossmaessler.

“A new advanced manufacturing project will create thousands of new jobs and pump millions of dollars into Michigan’s economy, helping small business, attracting investment and raising property values. It would also make us less reliant on – and more competitive with – foreign countries like China," Rossmaessler wrote.

“Bringing an advanced manufacturer to Genesee County will also provide millions of dollars of new tax revenue, helping to fund our roads, schools and public safety services, including police and fire. It will help bring back to the U.S. jobs and our supply chain, which have been outsourced, enhancing our national security and improving our ability to compete with our economic adversaries, including China.”

The state economic incentives aim to accelerate Michigan’s inventory of investment-ready sites and win economic development projects that will bring long-term economic opportunity and security statewide, said Otie McKinley, media and communications manager at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation

“Supporting the site prep of this parcel will lead to business investment, population growth, improved transportation infrastructure and generational job creation,” McKinley wrote in an email to CapCon. “It’s important to note the funds you reference did not go to a company, as no company has been confirmed for the site.”

When CapCon asked for the nondisclosure agreement and all other documents detailing the Mundy megasite, the economic development agency billed CapCon $4,338 for 6,008 documents. The documents would show how the agency plans to pay taxpayer money to a secret company. The agency rejected a waiver request.

A grant to a hidden company asking for money, given by lawmakers who’ve silenced themselves through a nondisclosure agreement, is bad public policy, said James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

"An unnamed company has asked for an unspecified amount of money. Officials ostensibly have made a threat about what it would do without taxpayer cash, argued in private with our lawmakers who have signed nondisclosure agreements to keep this secret,” Hohman told CapCon in an email. “This is not how public policy is supposed to work."