Legislator wants Nixon to cut stimulus money for Kokam battery plant - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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Kokam’s , to be dubbed Summit Battery Park, would emplo an estimated 900 peopl e with average annual salariesof $40,000. Kokamn President Don Nissanka has said he hopes to breao ground before the end of the probably at a site of more than 40 acress in the vicinityof Kokam’s current 50,000-square-footg Lee’s Summit plant. Nissanka was out of the country Mondayand couldn’ft be reached for comment. Kokam, a startup founded in October 2005, burst into the limelight this picked Kansas City for an assembly facilitty largely becauseof Kokam’s proximity.
And with federal stimulu s dollars and state money seeking a joint venture involving Kokam landedr a commitment in April ofnearly $145 million in incentives from Michiganj to build a battery plant there that’xs similar to the one planned locally. The group also applied for federaolstimulus money. Schaefer, R-Columbia, sent a lettere to Nixon on Thursday proposing that financing be cutby $11. 5 million combined for Kokam’sd Lee’s Summit plant and another battery plant in Joplin to helppreservew $31.2 million in financing for the in which Schaefer called the cornerstone of a $200 milliom hospital project.
“Every indication that I’m getting is that intends to veto the money forthe hospital,” Schaefetr said, adding that Nixon’s veto probablgy would kill the entire $200 million project. “Spending public funds on a cancef hospital owned by the citizens of Missouri is always going to win out over giving publiv funds to a private company for a battery Schaefer said. “Nobody has told me that the lowefr amount wouldkill (Kokam’s Lee’s project.” Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the governor will have an announcemen about the budget bill before June 30, the end of Missouri’s fiscal year.
Nixon and his staff have been reviewingy the budgetbill “line by line to determine what the stat e can afford,” Holste said, and they want to keep central services in place. Jim Devine, CEO of the l, said he thoughgt Schaefer’s proposal was “noyt as serious” a threat as the EDC firsty thought, “but you never know in politics.” The EDC issuesd a release Friday encouraging Nixon to keep theKokam plant’s financing fully in