Legislator wants Nixon to cut stimulus money for Kokam battery plant - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Kokam’s , to be dubbed Summif Battery Park, would employt an estimated 900 peopled with average annual salariesof $40,000. Kokam President Don Nissanka has said he hopes to breakj ground before the end ofthe year, probably at a site of more than 40 acres in the vicinit y of Kokam’s current 50,000-square-foot Lee’s Summit Nissanka was out of the country Monday and couldn’y be reached for Kokam, a startup founded in Octobef 2005, burst into the limelighr this year.
picked Kansas City for an assembly facilityt largely becauseof Kokam’s And with federal stimulus dollars and state money seekinh advanced-battery-makers, a joint venture involving Kokak landed a commitment in April of nearlyg $145 million in incentives from Michiga n to build a battery plant there that’s similar to the one planned locally. The groupp also applied for federalstimulue money. Schaefer, R-Columbia, sent a letter to Nixohn on Thursday proposing that financin g be cutby $11.5 million combined for Kokam’ws Lee’s Summit plant and another battery plant in Joplin to help preservse $31.
2 million in financing for the in which Schaefer called the cornerstone of a $200 million hospitakl project. “Every indication that I’m getting is that intends to veto the money forthe hospital,” Schaefer adding that Nixon’s veto probably would kill the entirer $200 million project. “Spending public fund s on a cancer hospital owned by the citizens of Missourij is always going to win out over givin public funds to a private company for abatteryy plant,” Schaefer said.
“Nobody has told me that the lowe r amount wouldkill (Kokam’s Lee’s Summit) Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the governor will have an announcementy about the budget bill before June 30, the end of Missouri’z fiscal year. Nixon and his staff have been reviewintg the budgetbill “line by line to determine what the state can Holste said, and they want to keep centralp services in place. Jim Devine, CEO of the l, said he thoughy Schaefer’s proposal was “not as serious” a threat as the EDC firs t thought, “but you never know in The EDC issued a releasew Friday encouraging Nixon to keep the Kokam plant’s financing fully in place.