Michigan moves to block $15M left of Clare health campus grant, other project

• Lawmakers move to end two grants, totaling $45 million, that sparked controversy and two investigations
• One grant, intended to build a ‘health and fitness’ park in Clare, was awarded to a former aide to former House Speaker Jason Wentworth
• The other grant went to a nonprofit created by a prominent metro Detroit Democrat

Michigan lawmakers are putting a final block on $15 million previously allocated for a project to build a health campus near Clare that is now under investigation by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.

The initial $25 million grant, championed by then-House Speaker Jason Wentworth, was awarded to a nonprofit created by one of his former aides, David Coker Jr.

Land for the project was purchased for $3.5 million from a real estate group that included state Rep. Tom Kunse, R-Clare, who succeeded Wentworth in the Legislature.

Related:

• ‘Red flags’ surround $25M health campus pushed by ex-Michigan House speaker
• Michigan paid $10M before ‘red flags’ froze ex-House speaker’s pet project
• Timeline: How $25 million deal to ex-House aide raised ‘red flags,’ faltered
• Michigan: Double payment concerns suspended $25M Clare health campus grant

The state suspended the grant one day after Bridge Michigan first wrote about the project, citing “red flags” including potential double payments. The nonprofit, Complete Health Park, paid a consulting firm — that Coker created — $820,000 in management fees and another $182,000 for hours worked by Coker, public records acquired by Bridge showed.

This week, a committee of the Michigan Senate approved a bill that would “lapse” the balance of that grant as well as a separate $20 million grant that is also under investigation by Nessel’s office. In total, that decision will mean nearly $34 million in grant money coming back into the state budget.

“The people of Michigan have entrusted us to oversee our state budget — a budget funded on years of hard-earned tax dollars from our neighbors, friends, and family,” said Sen. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, chair of the  Senate Appropriations Committee.

“When one of our grantees falls short of those expectations, or shows they do not share in that mission, this Legislature will correct course and put those dollars toward a sounder investment in our people.”

The Senate move may be symbolic, however: The $15 million left from the Clare grant has already lapsed to the state's general fund, according to a budget office spokesperson, meaning it would no longer available for the project. 

The decision follows criticism and some reforms of Michigan’s spending process, which allows lawmakers to allocate millions of dollars to no-bid, pet projects.

In the past several years, more than $2 billion was approved with little public scrutiny or hearings. The money was often added to huge spending bills hours before votes and included vague language that makes it difficult to discern the recipient or location of the project.

Anthony herself was a prominent sponsor of grants in 2023, putting her name on 22 grants totaling over $137 million, with money going to job training, housing, Ferris State University and others.

This week, lawmakers also voted to claw back the remainder of a $20 million grant for “economic development and workforce” that ultimately went to Global Link International, a nonprofit formed less than two weeks after the grant’s approval, The Detroit News has reported.

Global Link is led by Fay Beydoun, who has served as executive director of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, a Whitmer appointee to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Party.

The attorney general is now investigating how Global Link spent some of the $800,000 it has received so far, including money for a $4,500 coffee maker, an $11,000 first-class plane ticket and over $400,000 in salaries for two people over just three months, according to The News.

Editor's note: This story and headline was updated at 9:10 a.m. on May 3 to clarify that money for the Clare health grant had lapsed into the state's general fund.