(The Center Square) – In the wake of mounting questions over grant funding, Michigan Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt is calling for a complete overhaul of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and how taxpayer funding is spent in the state.
“Right now MEDC is used as a slush fund for wealthy corporations to receive handouts from taxpayers,” Nesbitt told The Center Square in an exclusive interview. “It’s time to end the corporate welfare and start investing in our roads, our schools, and things that actually provide value to the people of Michigan.”
Nesbitt is currently running as a Republican candidate for Michigan’s governorship in 2026, as term-locked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer prepares to leave office.
Under his leadership, Nesbitt promised things would work differently.
“I’m going to have a great relationship with MEDC after we replace their failed leadership and eliminate the waste, fraud, and abuse that is plaguing it,” he said. “Unlike Gov. Whitmer I’m going to make sure that MEDC’s goal is to deliver for the people of Michigan, not handpicked political allies.”
Republicans have joined to call out Democrats for stonewalling investigations underway into MEDC after a Whitmer political appointee and donor was set to receive $20 million of taxpayer funding for her Oakland County-based nonprofit.
Fay Beydoun, a long-time political supporter of Whitmer, was serving on the MEDC executive board in 2022 at the time the grant was awarded.
“This scandal shows us everything that’s wrong with our state government. While taxpayers struggle to stay afloat, tax takers and their friends in Lansing are living luxuriously on the people’s dime,” Nesbitt said. “The people of Michigan deserve so much better than what they are getting from Lansing. It’s time to start putting Michigan first and bring common sense back to our state government.”
In early July, Nesbitt called for a federal investigation into the matter, sending a letter to U.S. Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz.
In that letter, he stated that he issued the request due to “serious allegations of misuse of public funds, conflicts of interest and potential national security risks.”
Nesbitt told The Center Square that a federal investigation would deliver the clarity Michigan taxpayers deserve.
“I’m looking for transparency,” he said. “The governor and her administration are refusing to answer questions about this. People have a right to know what happened with their tax dollars and whether or not the governor and her team violated federal law. It’s also critical that we assess whether our national security was compromised in any way.”
Currently, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is conducting an investigation into the Beydoun scandal, raiding the MEDC Lansing office June 18 to seize relevant documents.
Following that raid, MEDC’s attorneys filed a lawsuit. They argued the three boxes of documents and laptop seized in that raid were confidential under attorney-client privilege.
Oakland County District Court Judge James Brady gave MEDC until July 11 to appeal his decision which allowed the AG’s office to begin reviewing the documents for privilege through an independent taint team. MEDC did decide to move forward with that appeal, upholding that there was no corruption in the Global Link grant, or its grant-making process.
“The grant to Global Link was appropriated by the legislature – with the amount, the recipient and the disbursement schedule set forth in the boilerplate language,” said Otie McKinley, spokesperson for MEDC. “MEDC strives to administer these pass-through grants in such a way that we can appropriately balance clear legislative intent with stewardship of tax dollars. That continues to be our guiding principle.”
Just this week, Whitmer broke her silence on the controversy, telling reporters that she is “very troubled.” MEDC is currently working to recover $8.2 million in funding from Beydoun, which Whitmer said she hopes they are able to do.
Nesbitt said the problem is bigger than MEDC though, instead running through all the state’s spending.
“Lansing Democrats spent a $9 billion dollar surplus last year and we have nothing to show for it,” he said. “Instead of spending 100’s of millions of dollars on green energy scams, pet projects for donors, and corporate welfare, we need to be looking for ways to lower taxes and get the government off people’s backs.”
