So for people who don't understand how government works:

The governor does not create legislation, they simply sign or veto legislation the legislative branch passes.

Another thing the story doesn't acknowledge: the donor in question just owns a lot of fast food franchises, including non-Panera ones.

Let's be clear, it's very suspicious to me that this story is suddenly getting a lot of coverage but not stating the origin of the exemption.

But the other thing is billionaires donate a lot of money to many politicians, hell non-billionaires donate a lot of money to many politicians. Given the gross excess of donations in US politics I feel you could create more or less any conspiracy or corruption story you want to for almost any legislator and legislation combo you like.