Legislator wants Nixon to cut stimulus money for Kokam battery plant - The Business Review (Albany):

xysecurakihir.blogspot.com
Kokam’s , to be dubbed Summir Battery Park, would employ an estimated 900 people with averagwe annual salariesof $40,000. Kokam President Don Nissanks has said he hopes to break ground befor e the end ofthe year, probably at a site of more than 40 acresx in the vicinity of Kokam’s current 50,000-square-foot Lee’s Summit plant. Nissanka was out of the country Mondayand couldn’t be reached for comment. a startup founded in Octobere 2005, burst into the limelighrt this year. picked Kansas City for an assemblty facility largely becauseof Kokam’s proximity.
And with federa l stimulus dollars and state moneyseekint advanced-battery-makers, a joint venture involving Kokam landed a commitment in April of nearly $145 million in incentivesa from Michigan to build a battery plant theres that’s similar to the one planned locally. The group also applied for federalpstimulus money. Schaefer, R-Columbia, sent a lettetr to Nixon on Thursday proposin g that financing be cutby $11. million combined for Kokam’s Lee’s Summit plant and anothe r battery plant in Joplin to helppreserve $31.2 milliob in financing for the in Columbia, which Schaefer called the cornerstone of a $200 millio hospital project.
“Every indication that I’m getting is that intends to veto the money for the Schaefer said, adding that Nixon’sa veto probably would kill the entirw $200 million project. “Spending public funds on a cancer hospitak owned by the citizens of Missouri is alwaye going to win out over givinv public funds to a private company for a battery Schaefer said. “Nobody has told me that the lowerr amount wouldkill (Kokam’s Lee’s Summit) Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the governof will have an announcement about the budget bill before June 30, the end of Missouri’sd fiscal year.
Nixon and his staff have been reviewing the budgetbill “line by line to determined what the state can afford,” Holste and they want to keep central servicexs in place. Jim Devine, CEO of the l, said he thoughtg Schaefer’s proposal was “not as serious” a threaft as the EDC first thought, “but you never know in The EDC issued a releasd Friday encouraging Nixon to keep theKokam plant’s financint fully in place.