Whitmer’s Gotion Gamble Goes Bust
Lansing, MI – The $2.3 billion EV battery factory project promised by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) is officially in default after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) associated company, Gotion Inc., failed to meet its grant obligations.
After announcing a $175 million taxpayer subsidy for Gotion Inc., the project quickly came under fire due to Gotion’s ties with the CCP, including explicit allegiance to the Communist Party in their company bylaws. Now, amidst legal fights with the local township and pushback from Republican elected officials, Gotion has not held up their side of the bargain, and the MEDC is asking for more than $20 million back from the CCP-affiliated company.
This is another string in the symphony of failures following the MEDC, and Gretchen Whitmer’s corporate slush fund – the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR), which was defunded by lawmakers in the most recent Michigan budget. Notably, this is not the first SOAR project that did not keep up with Whitmer’s promises. Her administration has spent millions of dollars on dozens of projects that have yet to create a single job.
It is also another blow to the MEDC, an organization steeped in scandal after giving Gretchen Whitmer donor and ally Fay Beydoun a $20 million grant that was spent on a $4,500 coffee maker, as well as a first-class flight to Europe. The CEO of the MEDC, Quentin Messer, is currently under investigation by the Attorney General for his role in the grant.
“The end of the Gotion project is a huge win for Michigan residents who stood firm against Gretchen Whitmer and the Chinese Communist Party. The odds were stacked against taxpayers in this David versus Goliath story, but with perseverance, David won”, said Gabe Butzke, a spokesperson for Michigan Forward Network. “Michigan doesn’t need more corporate welfare disguised as economic development. Every dollar wasted on handouts to these major corporations is another dollar that doesn’t end up in classrooms, or in the pockets of Michigan families who actually drive our economy.”
