JEFFERSON CITY   •  A northwest Missouri state senator has killed , saying that the proposal demonstrated that the Legislature was “dysfunctional†and too close to developers.
Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, said a last-ditch compromise barely trimmed lucrative subsidies for low-income housing developers and still provided up to $100 million a year to rehab historic buildings.
“Just because the House continues to defend a handful of developers, a handful of donors, doesn’t mean the Senate should cave to a bad bill,†Lager said.
He said that while public schools are underfunded by about $600 million, the state spends more than $600 million on tax credit programs "giving special people special carve-outs."
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After Lager blasted the bill for about an hour, the sponsor, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, withdrew it. With less than five hours left before the Legislature's 6 p.m. mandatory adjournment, the bill is presumed dead.
With it go proposals to establish new incentives for international air cargo at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, startup technology businesses and computer data centers.
Schmitt had urged the Senate to accept the bill, even though it wasn't perfect. He said senators were "waiting for this fairy tale scenario to drop from the sky.
"This is an opportunity for us to move forward, to find resolution on an issue we've all struggled with," he said.
The bill’s demise wiped out the best chance developer Paul McKee had to renew the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage tax credit, which he is using to buy property north of downtown St. Louis for his NorthSide Regeneration project.
McKee has drawn about $41 million in tax credits but wants another $50 million, as envisioned when the program was established. Lawsuits have delayed his project and the land assemblage credit is set to expire this August.
Business lobbyists were holding out hope this afternoon that the House would take up and pass that would extend the New Markets Tax Credit, which encourages investments in small businesses in low-income areas.
Though a House committee added the land assemblage program to that bill, the McKee provisions are likely to be stripped. That way, the bill would not have to go back to the Senate, where it would likely run into a filibuster.
(The tax credit overhaul is HB698. The New Markets Tax Credit bill is SB112.)
