LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A Michigan Democratic legislator has been allowed to keep $15,000 in government assistance for COVID-19 small business recovery funds after amending a tax filing three years late according to a report.

State Representative Kristian Grant (D-Grand Rapids) organized seven new businesses in 2020 using her home address according to the Detroit News, some of which included a laundromat, notary service and a development firm.

Records indicate discrepancies between filings of paperwork.

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Records obtained from the Detroit News indicated that in one application, Grant’s business called “Game Plan Lifestyle Planner” that it had $4,250 in sales in December 2019. However, in an application for a separate business, her tax filing revealed a far lower sales number, $205 for 2019, which was revealed in a letter from the county’s lawyer to her.

A lawyer wrote to Rep. Grant in March 2023 asking for an explanation for the discrepancy in the filings. In a follow up letter from late March, the lawyer demanded an answer because she had “not provided any information despite multiple requests.”

“Consequently, if we do not receive a substantive response addressing this discrepancy by Friday, March 31, we will need to discuss the return of the $5,000 in grant funds for Game Plan Lifestyle Planner to Kent County pursuant to the terms of the grant agreement,” wrote Matthew T. Nelson, an attorney with the law firm Warner Norcross + Judd, according to the Detroit News.

Rep. Grant responded last May to the lawyer indicating that she had revised her 2019 tax filings to reflect the larger sales amount in 2019 according to the Detroit News.

In an email to the Detroit News, Rep. Grant accounted for the difference between the numbers as a “simple accounting error that was corrected.”

“The product was delivered to customers in January 2020, but pre-order sales occurred in November and December 2019,” Grant wrote in the email. “The accountant I was working with at the time initially attributed the sales to the month of delivery instead of the month of the actual sale and subsequently the wrong year.

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“As a result, I had to amend my state and federal returns and resubmit.”

Former Kent County Commissioner suggested the reason why funds were not taken back.

Robbery Womack, a former Kent County commissioner, said that the fear of going after a Democratic legislator when Democrats control state government partially convinced county leaders not to seek to get the funds back, according to the Detroit News.

“It needs to be returned,” Womack said of the money according to the Detroit News.

Track record and experience as a Legislator.

Rep. Grant was first elected to the House in 2022. Since then, she has been elected to chair the House Economic Development and Small Business Housing Subcommittee.

She is also a member of the House Tax Policy Committee which works to create legislation and policy pertaining to taxes.