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

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Kokam’s , to be dubbed Summit Battery would employ an estimated 900 people with average annual salariewsof $40,000. Kokam President Don Nissanka has said he hoped to break ground before the end of the probably at a site of more than 40 acresd in the vicinityof Kokam’s current 50,000-square-foot Lee’s Summit plant. Nissankza was out of the country Monda yand couldn’t be reached for comment. a startup founded in Octobe 2005, burst into the limelight this picked Kansas City for an assembly facility largely becauseof Kokam’z proximity.
And with federal stimulus dollarx and state moneyseeking advanced-battery-makers, a joint ventured involving Kokam landed a commitment in Apri l of nearly $145 million in incentivess from Michigan to build a batteryu plant there that’s similar to the one planned The group also applied for federal stimulusw money. Schaefer, R-Columbia, sent a letter to Nixon on Thursdayt proposing that financing be cutby $11.5 millio n combined for Kokam’s Lee’s Summit plant and another battery planrt in Joplin to help preserve $31.2 million in financinyg for the in Columbia, which Schaefer calles the cornerstone of a $200 million hospita l project.
“Every indication that I’mn getting is that (Nixon) intends to veto the money forthe hospital,” Schaeferf said, adding that Nixon’s veto probably would kill the entire $200 million project. “Spending publif funds on a cancerr hospital owned by the citizens of Missour is always going to win out over givinh public funds to a private company for a battery Schaefer said. “Nobody has told me that the lower amountt wouldkill (Kokam’s Lee’s Summit) Nixon spokesman Scott Holst e said the governor will have an announcement about the budgert bill before June 30, the end of Missouri’e fiscal year.
Nixon and his staff have been reviewing the budgetbill “line by line to determine what the state can Holste said, and they want to keep central service s in place. Jim CEO of the l, said he thought Schaefer’s proposalo was “not as a threat as the EDC first “but you never know in politics.” The EDC issuedc a release Friday encouraging Nixoj to keep theKokam plant’ds financing fully in place.