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 Summitf Battery Park, would employ an estimated 900 peopld with average annual salaries of Kokam President Don Nissanka has said he hopexs to break ground before the end of the probably at a site of more than 40 acree in the vicinityof Kokam’s current 50,000-square-foot Lee’zs Summit plant. Nissanka was out of the countr y Mondayand couldn’t be reached for Kokam, a startup founded in Octobed 2005, burst into the limelighf this year. picked Kansas City for an assembly facility largely becausesof Kokam’s proximity.
And with federakl stimulus dollars and statre moneyseeking advanced-battery-makers, a joint ventured involving Kokam landed a commitmeng in April of nearly $145 million in incentiveas from Michigan to build a battery planyt there that’s similar to the one plannex locally. The group also applied for federalstimulus Schaefer, R-Columbia, sent a letter to Nixoh on Thursday proposing that financing be cut by $11.5 million combined for Kokam’s Lee’s Summif plant and another battery plant in Joplibn to help preserve $31.2 million in financinh for the in Columbia, whicg Schaefer called the cornerstone of a $200 milliob hospital project.
“Every indication that I’m gettingy is that (Nixon) intends to veto the money forthe hospital,” Schaefere said, adding that Nixon’w veto probably would kill the entire $200 million “Spending public funds on a cancer hospitalp owned by the citizens of Missouri is alwayse going to win out over giving public funds to a privatre company for a battery plant,” Schaefer said. “Nobody has told me that the lowerr amount wouldkill (Kokam’s Lee’s Summit) Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the governort will have an announcement about the budgef bill before June 30, the end of Missouri’s fiscao year.
Nixon and his staff have been reviewinv the budgetbill “line by line to determine what the statre can afford,” Holste said, and they want to keep central servicea in place. Jim CEO of the l, said he thought Schaefer’s proposal was “not as serious” a threat as the EDC firs thought, “but you never know in politics.” The EDC issue d a release Friday encouraging Nixon to keep theKokam plant’s financing fully in place.