Unclear whether MSU Trustee resides in Michigan or Texas

Renee Knake Jefferson has served on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees since 2019, but property tax records showed her as an owner of an Austin, Texas, home from 2021-23, on which a tax credit was claimed.

Michigan election law requires MSU trustees to be Michigan voters when nominated for office.

When Jefferson ran for reelection in 2022, she claimed residence in an East Lansing home, according to her MSU affidavit of identity, which Michigan Capitol Confidential obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

CapCon has obtained property tax documents that raise the question of whether Jefferson’s legal residence is in Texas or Michigan. 

The Michigan home is in the name of a trust that appears to be co-owned by Jefferson and her husband. 

In 2020, the Rilke Trust bought Jefferson’s East Lansing home. Jefferson, whose maiden name was Newman, signed under her maiden name as an owner, according to a principal residence affidavit obtained through a record request.

The trust has claimed a Michigan homestead exemption from 2020-2024, according to property records.

In Michigan, one may receive a homestead credit for a permanent residence but not for second homes or rental properties. Anyone claiming the homestead tax credit must live in Michigan for at least 183 days to exempt a residence from local school district taxes.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Jefferson, then known as Renee Newman Knake, to the MSU Board of Trustees in December 2019. On July 4, 2020, Whitmer officiated Knake’s marriage to Wallace B. Jefferson at the governor’s mansion on Mackinac Island, The New York Times reported.

About 1,300 miles from East Lansing, Knake and Jefferson bought the Texas property on June 15, 2018, according to a deed obtained by CapCon. From 2021-23, ownership was changed to WBJ Management Trust and Renee N Knake. Property tax records show that in 2024, ownership changed to WBJ Management Trust and Wallace B Jefferson.

Jefferson said she didn’t own property in Texas from 2021-2023, according to Emily Gerkin Guerrant, MSU vice president and university spokesperson.

“Trustee Knake Jefferson indicated she did not own any property in Texas during those years, and thus received no homestead exemption in Texas,” Guerrant wrote in an email to CapCon.

Knake, who changed her last name to Jefferson, said she has been a Michigan resident every year she claimed a homestead tax credit in Michigan.

“For the years I received a homestead tax credit in Michigan and paid taxes to the State of Michigan and the City of East Lansing, I was a Michigan resident, which I continue to be today,” Jefferson wrote in an email to CapCon.

“My prior residencies (which over the years have included Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, Illinois, Texas, and Virginia) are not relevant to my residency during my time as a trustee,” she said.

Voters reelected Jefferson to the MSU board in 2022. She is currently serving a term through January 2031.

The answers to some of these questions are hampered by Michigan’s FOIA law, which doesn’t apply to the Legislature and governor’s office. Michiganders should have access to those documents, Rep. Donni Steele, R-Orion Township, told CapCon in an email.

“It’s long past time that politicians like the governor and my colleagues fulfill a decades-old promise to make office documents public,” Steele said. “The people pay for every single thing we do, from passing laws or appointing university trustees to making copies. They should have access to our offices, including the governor's, to ensure we represent their best interests through our decisions.”