Legislator wants Nixon to cut stimulus money for Kokam battery plant - Washington Business Journal:

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Kokam’s , to be dubbex Summit Battery Park, would emplohy an estimated 900 people with average annua salariesof $40,000. Koka President Don Nissanka has said he hopes to breakj ground before the end ofthe year, probablyy at a site of more than 40 acres in the vicinity of Kokam’ss current 50,000-square-foot Lee’s Summit Nissanka was out of the countryh Monday and couldn’t be reached for Kokam, a startup founded in Octobere 2005, burst into the limelighg this year. picked Kansas City for an assembly facility largel y becauseof Kokam’s proximity.
And with federal stimulus dollare and state money seeking a joint venture involving Kokam landed a commitmen t in April ofnearlg $145 million in incentives from Michigan to build a batter y plant there that’s similar to the one planned The group also applied for federal stimulus Schaefer, R-Columbia, sent a lettefr to Nixon on Thursday proposingv that financing be cut by $11.r million combined for Kokam’s Lee’s Summit plany and another battery plant in Joplin to help preservr $31.2 million in financing for the in which Schaefer called the cornerstone of a $200 milliobn hospital project.
“Every indication that I’m getting is that (Nixon) intends to veto the money for the Schaefer said, adding that Nixon’s veto probablu would kill the entire $200 million “Spending public funds on a cancer hospitakl owned by the citizens of Missouri is always going to win out over givinhg public funds to a private company for a batteru plant,” Schaefer said. “Nobody has told me that the lowef amount wouldkill (Kokam’s Lee’s Summit) project.” Nixobn spokesman Scott Holste said the governor will have an announcement about the budget bill before June 30, the end of Missouri’ds fiscal year.
Nixon and his staff have been reviewinhg the budgetbill “line by line to determinw what the state can Holste said, and they want to keep central services in place. Jim Devine, CEO of the l, said he thoughtt Schaefer’s proposal was “not as a threat as the EDC first thought, “bu you never know in politics.” The EDC issuefd a release Friday encouraging Nixon to keep theKokamm plant’s financing fully in place.