John Mazzina, president of the Center for Economic Accountability, told the House Oversight Subcommittee that the Goshen EV battery plant sequence exposed serious transparency and oversight failures at state and local levels.

"Local residents weren't sort of monolithically for or against the project, but were very concerned that they felt like they were only getting one side of the story," Mazzina said, summarizing community testimony he encountered in Big Rapids and Green Township.

Mazzina said he first became involved in the Goshen project in October 2022 and later engaged with community meetings after the project announcement. He told the committee that, based on public memos and reporting, Ferris State University sought an MEDC mobility grant of about $659,500 tied to the project and that the private nonprofit Right Place had received Strategic Site Readiness Program (SSRP) funding tied to preparing the site.

He said the MEDC is seeking repayment of roughly $23,600,000 in SSRP funding that went to the Right Place, and he criticized disbursing readiness funds before final approvals and local buy-in. "It would have been better not to disperse any of that funding before all the approvals were finalized," he said.

Mazzina recounted that Big Rapids Township declined to host the project; Green Township later accepted but its board was recalled or resigned amid local opposition. He said residents discovered that an environmental impact report had not been prepared before the subsidy agreement was announced.

Representative Tom Koontz, whose district includes Green Township, told the committee the township continues to face litigation and that the townships annual budget is small compared with legal and remediation costs tied to the failed project. He said he had submitted a legislative spending request for $275,000 to assist Green Township with legal fees; that request did not pass the budget process.

Representative Joe Fox described a door‑to‑door survey he and other legislators conducted in 2023 that sampled 36 homes; they reported 30 opposed and six in favor of the project. Fox said he participated in local rallies and that residents widely opposed the Goshen proposal.

Committee members asked about liens and the propertys financing. Representative Koontz said the state holds a second-place lien and reported a bank UCC filing; he asked the committee to pursue documentation of where the state's funds went and the feasibility of recouping public dollars.

Witnesses and lawmakers urged the committee to require stronger due diligence and to consider tighter controls on site‑readiness and local engagement before disbursing public funds. The committee did not vote on a recovery plan during the hearing but requested further documentation from the MEDC and other parties.