No Deal

Recently in the Prime Buzz, Kansas City Star:

House approves Bombardier legislation; bill will likely be preferred vehicle in Senate

The Missouri House gave final approval Monday to legislation enabling tax credits that could be used for the proposed Bombardier Aerospace aircraft assembly plant in Kansas City.

The bill now moves on to the Senate, where it will likely become the vehicle carrying the Bombardier project through the legislature.

If approved, the bill would allow large-scale economic development projects to receive up to $40 million in tax credits a year for 22 years. In exchange, companies would have to provide $300 million in investment, create at least 1,000 jobs and agree to a repayment plan for the tax credits.

The House passed the bill 125-16 after less than an hour of debate. It won preliminary approval last week in about two and a half hours.

That contrasts sharply with nearly identical legislation in the Senate, which has weathered three days of debate and strong opposition from lawmakers.

Sen. Majority Leader Charlie Shields, a St. Joseph Republican, said he will likely put the Senate bill aside and focus on working the House bill through the Senate.

Having passed the House, the bill needs only to win one round of voting in the Senate. The Senate version still must pass two rounds of Senate votes and then win approval in the House.

The Senate will likely return to the legislation next week, Shields said.

Greg Steinoff, from the Department of Economic Development, was appointed by Governor Blunt, therefore not an elected official. He is a huge advocate of this bill, but I wonder why! He claims it will not cost the state anything, but we all know that is not possible! Tax credits of millions of dollars will be issued to Bombardier. Why is someone who is not an elected official acting like he knows better than those elected to represent Missourians?

Tax credits will reduce the revenue stream...which affects us all at some point or another. We may get higher taxes or we may see cuts in some other services. Is anyone willing to see either one of those happen for a foreign company, who may or may not bring us jobs in Kansas City? What about the rest of the people in Missouri...who will see the negative effects of this huge tax credit program, while only Kansas City folks will ever see the possible benefits.

This bill, if passed, would be devastating for Missouri. We simply cannot afford this.