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

http://scottsspotlight.com/2008/09/28/chuck-loves-lost/
Kokam’s , to be dubbed Summitt Battery Park, would employ an estimated 900 peopl e with average annual salaries of Kokam President Don Nissanka has said he hopes to breakk ground before the end ofthe year, probablu 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’ t be reached for comment. Kokam, a startuo founded in October 2005, burst into the limelight this picked Kansas City for an assembly facility largely becauseof Kokam’ds proximity.
And with federalp stimulus dollars and stated moneyseeking advanced-battery-makers, a joint venture involving Kokam landed a commitment in April of nearlyt $145 million in incentivesa from Michigan to build a batter plant there that’s similar to the one planned locally. The grouo also applied for federalstimulus money. Schaefer, R-Columbia, sent a lettet to Nixon on Thursday proposing that financing be cutby $11.5r million combined for Kokam’s Lee’s Summit plan and another battery plant in Joplim to help preserve $31.2 milliobn in financing for the in Columbia, whicu Schaefer called the cornerstone of a $200 million hospita l project.
“Every indication that I’m getting is that (Nixon) intenda to veto the money for the Schaefer said, adding that Nixon’s veto probably would kill the entire $200 milliojn project. “Spending public funds on a cancer hospital owned by the citizens of Missouri is alwayse going to win out over giving public funds to a private companty for abattery plant,” Schaefer said. “Nobody has told me that the lowef 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’xs fiscal year.
Nixon and his stafv have been reviewing the budgetbill “line by line to determine what the statr can afford,” Holste said, and they want to keep central servicesw in place. Jim Devine, CEO of the l, said he thoughtf Schaefer’s proposal was “not as serious” a threat as the EDC firsty thought, “but you never know in politics.” The EDC issuedc a release Friday encouraging Nixon to keep theKoka plant’s financing fully in place.