— It started out all about jobs.
As governor of a state with a high unemployment rate, Jay Nixon has made a point to attend dozens of jobs announcement events, and an announcement last July in Moberly was no different.
Local and state economic development officials had worked with Mamtek, a Chinese corporation, in hopes that they would locate in the small mid-Missouri town of Moberly, creating some 600 jobs by basing an artificial sugar company in the heartland, adding a $46 million boost for Moberly and the entire state.
“ I am pleased that my administration was able to provide a competitive package of strategic economic incentives to help bring these jobs to Missouri,” Nixon announced last July.
Promising job creation, the company received nearly $37 million in bonds immediately from city of Moberly and planned to receive more than $17.6 million in tax incentives from the state of Missouri.
The company signed contracts and started the process of building their infrastructure, but nearly a year after Nixon appeared at the announcement with company, the Moberly miracle turned into a Mamtek mystery.
In August, Mamtek failed to make a bond payment to the city of Moberly, and in September, the company laid off the few workers it had already hired, collapsing before any real jobs were created, and before the building construction was even be completed.
The collapse caused the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the company and Moberly’s bonds, and left taxpayers on the hook for a $39 million loan.
Friday, reporters pressed Nixon on what he knew about the company’s financial situation at the time of the announcement.
“I don’t run the Department of Economic Development,” Nixon said, a contrast to his early eagerness to support the company. “I don’t work the deals at the ground level. When we see opportunities, we move forward.”
Nixon stressed that no state economic development tax dollars had been yet given to the company, because the company hadn’t created any jobs.
Republicans say the mess could have been avoided in the first place, accusing Nixon of rushing the deal with Mamtek.
“Even a small amount of vetting would have uncovered Mamtek’s problems—and had Nixon done his homework, Moberly would not be in their current predicament,” said Jonathan Prouty, spokesman for the Missouri Republican party.
Nixon wasn’t the only Missouri politician involved with Mamtek at the time. In Mamtek’s press releaseannouncing the plant in Moberly, Bruce Cole, the company’s Chairman and CEO, lauded the support of, among others, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, Missouri Republicans’ likely candidate for governor next year.
They applauded Kinder, a member of the Missouri Development Finance Board, because he voted to approve an application for $4,646,800 in Missouri BUILD tax credits at board meeting last June, an important step in incentivizing Mamtek to build in Missouri.
Friay, the Colubmia Tribune reported that the same Mamtek may have been using the Moberly plant to exploit an immigration law that essentially sells visas to individuals who invest at least $500,000 that creates or preserves at least 10 jobs. Under the law, investors receive visas good for two years, and then receive residency status for them and up to three generations of their family.
On the same day, Chris Koster, the state’s Attorney General, announced that his office is assisting the Randolph County Prosecutor in reviewing the Mamtek matter.