By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
With more than 250,000 Missouri residents lacking jobs, Gov. Jay Nixon said the state “needs bold action” to create and attract the kind of high-tech work under way at EaglePicher Technologies in Joplin.
That’s why he chose the Joplin company, Nixon said Wednesday, as one of the sites for a ceremonial signing of a bill designed to bring more jobs and business to the state.
“EaglePicher is exactly the type of company we want in Missouri, because it’s high-tech and it’s growing,” the governor said at an event in a company training room. “And this law will expand the number of economic tools at our disposal to get more workers back on the job.”
The new law provides funding for pre-employment activities under the state’s job-training program, raises the spending limit on state incentives for businesses that create higher-paying jobs with benefits, and removes the cap for jobs in the high impact and technology categories.
Nixon said the measure will make Missouri more competitive in attracting jobs to the state.
“Before this, we were up against states that had real numbers in hand,” he said. “Now we’ll have the tools to match, along with the quality of Missouri’s work force, which is second to none.”
Bipartisan support for the bill that passed in the 2009 session showed that lawmakers “set politics aside, and put workers and families first,” the Democratic governor said at the ceremony that attracted local Republican lawmakers, economic-development officials and others to the EaglePicher plant.
Nixon said passage of the bill “makes me more optimistic Missouri can turn the corner on the economy.”
“We have to be positioned to accelerate out of the recession; we can’t hold still,” he said.
The governor also praised state legislation that allocates $25 million from stimulus funds that would help EaglePicher tap into additional federal funds to develop commercial batteries that would store power created by wind energy.
Randy Moore, company president, said after the signing ceremony that the new law should help the company in development of that technology, along with medical batteries and batteries for hybrid vehicles.
“When you’re looking at next-generation jobs, money for training is a big part,” said Creed Jones, vice president for human resources at the company.
He said state funds have enabled the company to bring in 24 technology students from universities across the country to work as summer interns.
Nixon noted that the bill was approved 28-6 in the Senate and 153-2 in the House. He joined state Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, in crediting the leadership of House Speaker Ron Richard, of Joplin, in helping to get the bill passed. Along with Nodler, Reps. Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City, and Tom Flanigan, R-Carthage, attended the session. Richard, former chairman of the House Committee on Job Creation and Economic Development, was on his way back from a national event for House speakers.
New jobs
Company officials say EaglePicher is seeking a partnership with an unidentified utility and is prepared to create as many as 600 new jobs in the development of new batteries to store wind energy.
