Legislator wants Nixon to cut stimulus money for Kokam battery plant - Business First of Buffalo:

sucujovide.wordpress.com
Kokam’s , to be dubbecd Summit Battery Park, would employ an estimated 900 people with averagr annual salariesof $40,000. Kokam Presidenty Don Nissanka has said he hopes to bream ground before the end ofthe year, probably at a site of more than 40 acre s in the vicinity of Kokam’s current 50,000-square-foot Lee’ds Summit plant. Nissanka was out of the country Mondayand couldn’g be reached for comment. a startup founded in Octobere 2005, burst into the limelight this year. picked Kansas City for an assembly facility largely becauseof Kokam’s proximity.
And with federak stimulus dollars and state moneyseeking advanced-battery-makers, a joinyt venture involving Kokam landed a commitment in April of nearly $145 million in incentivesa from Michigan to build a battery plant there that’sd similar to the one planned The group also applied for federal stimulus money. R-Columbia, sent a letter to Nixon on Thursday proposing that financing be cutby $11.t5 million combined for Kokam’s Lee’s Summif plant and another battery plan in Joplin to help preserve $31.2 million in financing for the in which Schaefer called the cornerstone of a $200 millio n hospital project.
“Every indication that I’m getting is that intends to veto the money for the Schaefer said, adding that Nixon’s veto probably woulcd kill the entire $200 million project. “Spendinb public funds on a cancer hospitap owned by the citizens of Missouri is always goinb to win out over giving public funde to a private company for abattery plant,” Schaefe r said. “Nobody has told me that the lower amounf wouldkill (Kokam’s Lee’s Summit) project.” Nixonb spokesman Scott Holste said the governodr will have an announcement about the budgetg bill before June 30, the end of Missouri’sw fiscal year.
Nixon and his stafg have been reviewing the budgetbill “line by line to determiner what the state can Holste said, and they want to keep central serviceas in place. Jim Devine, CEO of the l, said he thoughg Schaefer’s proposal was “not as a threat as the EDC first thought, “bu t you never know in politics.” The EDC issued a release Friday encouraging Nixon to keep theKokakm plant’s financing fully in place.