KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Southwest Michigan First says it’s having trouble supporting massive tax breaks to lure a Nevada-based company’s $5 billion data center project to Grand Rapids.
Chief Executive Officer Ron Kitchens said he’s not against incentives to compel Switch to move into the vacant Steelcase Pyramid outside of the city, but also said it’s not right how the company, in his mind, is holding the state hostage.
“Having a gun held to the head and saying, ‘You either change state law for me or I may take my jobs elsewhere and, by the way, I can’t really define what the jobs are,’ that’s pretty hard,” Kitchens said.
He also said he would welcome an “adult conversation” on the topic.
“From everything I’ve read, they’re a good company,” Kitchens said. “It’s just bad public policy.”
Switch will take the project and its 1,000 jobs to another state if the deal isn’t done by the end of the year.
House debate on the bill stalled last week but is set to resume Tuesday.
– Anthony Pollreisz
