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Today's Poll!Nixon searches for words during impromptu news conference
Children from Lawson Elementary School helped Gov. Jay Nixon and first lady Georganne Nixon trim a Christmas tree Friday at the Capitol. Afterward, Nixon spoke on several topics. Photo by Stephen Brooks.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Jay Nixon is a lawyer. And lawyers sometimes pause to use just the right word when answering a question.
But reporters who met with Nixon in Jefferson City on Friday morning, after a tree-trimming ceremony with Lawson School students, couldn’t remember a time when the governor stopped so long to choose his words.
He paused about 15 seconds while answering a question about this week’s hearings on Mamtek, the company that promised to build an artificial sweetener plant in Moberly but failed to make a bond payment this summer.
Some have suggested Nixon and the Economic Development department failed to investigate the company before backing the plan.
Finally, he said: “A lot of business deals don’t make it to the finish line. ...
“I think it’s very, very important for (us) to use taxpayer dollars wisely (and to be) focused on trying to create jobs.”
Nixon also said he’s not ready to endorse Transportation Director Kevin Keith’s proposal to rebuild Interstate 70 as a toll road.
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Comments
yamahamian 1 year, 6 months ago
Sometimes silence speaks more than a thousand volumes.
Btw - where's Bruce A. Cole?? Probably living it up on a boat in clear-blue water somewhere, laughing his head off at how he pulled off a $35+ million con....
muleman 1 year, 6 months ago
You can have people think that you are a fool, or you can open your mouth and remove all doubt................ Mark Twain
wow 1 year, 6 months ago
Although it would be nice to see and hear this stuff first hand, the reality is that ya don't have to be sitting in the room to know where the blame for the Mamtek disaster should be placed. I'm convinced fault lies not with the Gov or the state Eco-Devo folks. From what I read and seen, 100% of the blame goes squarely on the shoulders of President of the Moberly Economic Development Dept, the one and only Corey Mahaffey. Yes it's true that Gov. Nixon's Eco-Devo Chief David Kerr could have shared with the Moberly folks an e-mail he received from DWD's Chinese counterpart regrading the problems with Mamtek, but the facts have already been proven that even though this e-mail wasn't shared between Moberly and the state folks. It was known by both the state and the Moberly leadership that there were some problems and proceeding with the Mamtek project was not wise. It was also known that Mamtek had already chosen to set up in Sedalia. Funny thing is the Sedalia folks didn't get that all powerful e-mail either, yet they did adhere to the caution DWD afforded them about the Mamtek concerns. Why is it the Sedalia leadership was able to apply some common sense and wisely did not provide funding without conditions and until Mamtek was actually in full operation. Add that Corey Mahaffey decided to use an additional $400,000 dollars of local tax payer money to do an independent study of Mamtek and that Corey Mahaffey while knowing there were problems with the project. It was he who contacted Mamtek and personally guaranteed funding for the company if they decided to choose Moberly over Sedalia. When you think in those terms, it's quite easy to see where the blame for this $39,000,000 bond fiasco lies. Shame is the actual cost to the Moberly tax payers is at least an additional $400,00.
So get off Jay's back and leave David Kerr out of this.....the person or people you should be hounding all live and or work in the Moberly community. Now the Gov or David Kerr out of professionalism are not going to point fingers, so I'll do it for them. Go blame Correy Mahaffey, Frank Rithro and their crew....now you may sell more papers hounding the Gov Nixon and Director Kerr, but if you want the truth, go visit the folks in Moberly. You'll soon learn this mess occurred because of nothing more than some young over energetic wanna be Big Shot and a bunch of good ole boyz who thought they finally found the post of gold forgot the golden rule and they all foolishly began counting their chickens waaaay before the eggs were even laid.
yamahamian 1 year, 6 months ago
Nobody is saying Nixon or Kerr are the only ones at fault here, But you gotta admit 'ol Jay sure is a whole lot quieter now than last year when he was practically breaking his arm patting himself on the back for all the jobs HE and the DED created.for the State of Missouri.
.
wow 1 year, 6 months ago
Nixon, Kerr nor any state employee bear one single ounce of fault in this fiasco. These people did what they were suppose to do. They didn't waste the tax payer's money on Mamtek. Now I agree the Gov was really yelling JOBS, JOBS, JOBS, and the 600 or so from this project didn't happen. So in the future he may be a bit more contrite when announcing a new company is creating jobs here in Missouri. Yet just as significant is for Missourian's to understand and appreciate that Gov Nixon, David Kerr and the folks at the state level did their jobs and did them quite well. They all tried getting a company to set up shop in Missouri in hopes of creating 600 jobs for the state. When the company balked the people at the state level simply told the company what they had to do before they could receive Missouri incentives from the state agencies. Regretfully the local leadership in Moberly didn't do that. Instead they felt the need to circumvent things and gave up $39,000,000 in bonds and another $400,000 in additional Consultant expenses even though they were informed by the state of problems with the Mamtek project. It was these actions by the local community leaders which caused 100% of the mess we're seeing and Corey Mahaffey and crew need to own up to and be recognized for their goof up.
mm59ss71 1 year, 6 months ago
Where is the proof that Jay or any of the others on the state level did their job? It seems our Gov Nixon doesnt do much to help any of the people of the state of Missouri. Would we also not benefit from showing how many jobs have been lost in this state since he took office where he declared he would be bringing jobs to Missouri? He keeps saying that our unemployment is going down but the truth is it isnt going down there are just more that arent able to collect benefits because theirs have run out. We have more state employees who are fighting to try and keep their jobs (one area is just MoDot), our wonderful Gov Nixon cut many jobs just to turn around and hire others at a lower pay & with fewer benefits. So many people are quick to put down state workers but they are the lowest paid, benefit were the reason many took the job not for the pay. Many complain about number of days they have off but if you look at local businesses in the area that are NOT retail or fast food places they compare in days off, vacation & sick leave...state employees are paying higher amounts on their insurance without increase in wages in years. You have our Gov Nixon and the ones at the top state levels getting pay increases that they voted in themselves. (is it not time the people get to do the vote on if we think our elected officials deserve a raise) So dont tell me he didnt know and all blame needs to be in Moberly show me that our Gov Nixon had no hand in it first.
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