Governor Nixon says he would not have called the legislature back into special session today he didn’t think the automobile manufacturing bill would be passed.
The featured piece is a ten-year incentive program that could mean as much as 150-million dollars in tax savings to Ford if the company begins producing a new line of cars at the Claycomo plant But the state has to recoup the money it is giving up and that means a proposal reducing the amount the state puts into the retirement program for most state workers. That proposal requires new employees to contribute to their retirement plan, which present state workers don’t have to do.
The governor says this plan is not exclusive to Ford. “It also will assist…suppliers,” he says, “If Missouri companies are ready to invest and create new jobs, we always look forward to partnering with them.” Nixon says he does not want to see the hundreds of jobs at Claycomo and the thousands of jobs at supplier factories throughout Missouri go somewhere else.