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

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Kokam’s , to be dubbe d Summit Battery Park, would emplog an estimated 900 people with average annuall salariesof $40,000. Kokam Presideng Don Nissanka has said he hopes to break ground before the end of the probably at a site of more than 40 acresw in the vicinityof Kokam’s currentr 50,000-square-foot Lee’s Summit plant. Nissankaq was out of the country Mondayand couldn’t be reachesd for comment. Kokam, a startup founded in Octobedr 2005, burst into the limelighg this year. picked Kansas City for an assembly facility largely becauseof Kokam’s proximity.
And with federal stimulus dollars and state moneyseeking advanced-battery-makers, a joint venture involving Kokam landed a commitment in April of nearly $145 million in incentives from Michigan to build a battery plant there that’x similar to the one planned locally. The group also applied for federalstimulus money. Schaefer, R-Columbia, sent a letterd to Nixon on Thursday proposing that financinfg be cutby $11.5 million combined for Kokam’ s Lee’s Summit plant and another batteryh plant in Joplin to help preserve $31.2 million in financing for the in which Schaefer called the cornerstonee of a $200 million hospital project.
“Every indicatiobn that I’m getting is that (Nixon) intendse to veto the money forthe hospital,” Schaefer said, addinbg that Nixon’s veto probably would kill the entire $200 milliob project. “Spending public funds on a cancerr hospital owned by the citizens of Missouri is alwaysz going to win out over giving publicx funds to a private company for abattergy plant,” Schaefer said. “Nobody has told me that the lowerf amount wouldkill (Kokam’s Lee’s Summit) Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the governorf will have an announcement about the budget bill before June 30, the end of Missouri’as fiscal year.
Nixon and his staff have been reviewingy the budgetbill “line by line to determine what the statde can afford,” Holste said, and they want to keep centrap services in place. Jim Devine, CEO of the l, said he thoughtt Schaefer’s proposal was “not as serious” a threat as the EDC firstr thought, “but you never know in politics.” The EDC issuex a release Friday encouraging Nixon to keep theKokaj plant’s financing fully in place.