Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City), minority vice chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments. Oct. 29, 2025 | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance
As the death knell for a controversial electric vehicle battery plant in Mecosta County rang out last week, members of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments held a post-mortem on the state’s support for the project.
On Wednesday, members of the subcommittee welcomed John Mozena, president of the Center of Economic Accountability, which works across the country to promote transparency, accountability and reform of state and local economic development efforts.
They also heard testimony from state Reps. Tom Kunse (R-Clare) and Joe Fox (R-Fremont), with Kunse representing the district where the project was sited while Fox represents the neighboring district.
Mozena said he first became involved with the Gotion project in October 2022, noting his initial concerns were based on “the scanty information available just a few days after the announcement.”
“It made no sense to make a 30 year deal around a technology that has such an uncertain future,” Mozena said, calling it “pure madness” for officials to try and predict which technologies would be viable 30 years into the future.
John Mozena, president of the Center for Economic Accountability testifies before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments. Oct. 29, 2025 | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance
Mozena said he became more involved in the project in early spring 2023, when he was invited by members of the Big Rapids Township Board to speak at a community meeting when the township was still the planned location for the plant.
While residents weren’t monolithically for or against the project, they did feel they were only getting one side of the story on the plant.
“There seemed to be a severe lack of transparency and engagement with local residents and even with local elected officials such as township board members. That is a recurring theme, that would become a recurring theme for the rest of [the] Gotion project’s lifespan,” Mozena said, noting he’d seen similar concerns in other communities where the state has aimed to court mega site projects.
With the Michigan Economic Development Corporation sending a letter to Gotion in September holding the project in default of its obligations to its Critical Industry Program grant agreement, state support for the project has ended.
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Danielle Emerson, public relations manager for the corporation said that none of the $125 million Critical Industry Program grant was disbursed to Gotion, and that they are actively seeking repayment of $23.6 million in site readiness dollars used to purchase land for the project. The remaining $26.4 million in site readiness dollars were not spent and will return to the state, Emerson said.
With that deal at an end, Mozena said very important questions are left for members of the committee to present to the various stakeholders who worked on the deal: “Well, what did we learn from that?” and “What are you planning to change to avoid a similar failure in the future?”
In Gotion’s Oct. 15, response to the default notice first reported by Crain’s Detroit Business, attorney Mark Heusel attributed the project’s failure to the community.
“These well-documented challenges, false accusations, and politically motivated attacks were not through any actions or inactions by Gotion, but solely due to racist and ethnically charged stereotypes that led Green Charter Township to breach the parties’ Development Agreement,” Heusel wrote.
Both conservative politicians and local activists repeatedly criticized the project over its parent company’s Chinese ties. While Gotion Inc. is based in California, the parent company, Guoxuan High-tech Co., is based in China.
Asian American lawmakers and civil rights advocates voiced concerns that anti-China rhetoric over the project – which was condemned by a number of Republican officials within Mecosta County – created increased risks for hate crimes and discrimination.
While there may be some who harbor anti-Chinese sentiments, Mozena contended that the concerns around the projects had more to do with the harmful policies enforced by the Chinese government.
He also pointed to testimony from former U.S. Ambassador to Fiji Joe Cella at a previous meeting of the subcommittee, where Cella pointed to requirements in Chinese law demanding Chinese-based companies, no matter where they are located, to surveil, collect and report as directed.
Chuck Thelen, the company’s vice president, has pushed back against these arguments, previously stating “Despite what any current politicians might say, there is no communist plot within Gotion.”
Committee Vice Chair Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City) contended that most people in the nation would agree that no corporation – regardless of their national origin – should receive taxpayer money, after noting that China, like most nations, is not free from criticism.
“I mean, our country is actively sending our tax dollars to fund a genocide right now as well,” Wegela said, criticizing the United States’ continued support for Israel.
In response, Rep. Matthew Bierlein (R-Vassar) walked out of the committee telling Wegela “I’m not going to sit here and listen to your crap anymore.” The subcommittee continued its discussion without him.
Rep. Matthew Bierlien (R-Vassar) walks out of a meeting of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments in response to Rep. Dylan Wegela’s (D-Garden City) criticism of U.S. aid to Israel. Oct. 29, 2025 | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance
Mozena agreed with Wegela, that companies should not be subsidized regardless of their nationality or background.
“That is one of the founding principles of our organization, is that at the long run, there is no evidence that we should be doing this.” Mozena said. “It’s morally wrong, it’s economically wrong, and the real-world evidence just is that it doesn’t work. So let’s stop doing things that don’t work.”
Concerns over organizations backing international trade missions persist
At the beginning of the meeting, Mozena also discussed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s efforts to build and maintain relationships with overseas investors, continuing a discussion from the previous committee meeting.
Last week the committee probed members of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and counsel for the Michigan Economic Development Federation over their role in planning and funding international trade missions led by the governor.
While the Michigan Economic Development Corporation – a public private partnership intended to support the state’s economic development – and the Michigan Economic Development Federation – a private nonprofit – repeatedly emphasized their independence from each other, two members of the federation’s board were also appointed to the board of the Economic Development Corporation.
The governor also serves as the ex-officio chair of the Michigan Economic Development Federation, though the role is not unique to Whitmer’s tenure, with the organization’s legal counsel, Eric Doster, emphasizing that the role is “more of an honorary position than a functionary one.”
Courtney Overbey Martinez, the Economic Development Corporation’s vice president of communications, told the Michigan Advance in an email last week there are protocols in place to ensure that as the foundation has conversations with new donors, that they do not have active projects in the economic development corporation’s pipeline. There is also a 90-day black out period when the Michigan Strategic Fund Board approves funding for a project before the foundation can conduct donor outreach.
Mozena raised further concerns about the connection of the foundation’s members to the state’s economic development efforts, pointing to reporting from the Detroit News which found that companies with seats on the foundation’s board received about $2.2 billion in economic development incentives from the Whitmer Administration in years past.
In his own research, Mozena found that at least 20 of the 29 companies the foundation lists as supporters received some form of tax abatement grant or other subsidy.
“I think that that is sort of a telling, whether it’s a coincidence or there’s the nature of the beast,” Mozena noted. “Obviously, the intent is to, you know, sort of get that access and to be able to have a voice on the topic of economic development, whether it is broad policy or whether it is a specific deal.”
With companies that contribute $25,000 or more to the foundation receiving a seat on the board, companies who do not make that donation do not have the same access to the governor and the Economic Development Corporation as those who do, Mozena said.
He once again pointed to the Detroit News’ reporting that members received access to Whitmer and Economic Development Corporation CEO Quentin Messer Jr. at private events.
While 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations like the foundation are allowed to engage in political lobbying, Mozena questioned Doster’s comparison of the group to a church or the Red Cross, noting that the Center for Economic Accountability holds the same type of nonprofit status.
“We know what we are doing. We’re just trying to influence policy, trying to influence the way the world works. And that’s the kind of thing that this organization is doing, and it would be good for them to be, I think, a bit more upfront and open about it,” Mozena said.
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