All MEDC Priorities Still Alive with 3 Weeks To Go!

(April 27, 2007) With three weeks to go in the 2007 legislative session, lawmakers continue to make economic development legislation a priority. The MEDC's proposal to allow regional economic development districts and to allow voluntary financing arrangements for initial development of property have cleared the House and are awaiting debate in the Senate. House Bill 741, sponsored by Rep. David Pearce and Rep. Darrell Pollock and handled in the Senate by Senator Chris Koster, provides local economic developers with these important tools. We will be meeting to finalize strategy for the bill early next week.

House Bill 327, the omnibus economic development bill, will have a conference committee meeting next week. We have been working closely with the bill sponsor, Rep. Ron Richard, and the bill's Senate handler, Senator John Griesheimer, on details of various parts of the bill. The Senate version of the bill contained several undesirable provisions, including a change in the "nexus" standard proposed by one business group that would allow out-of-state companies to unfairly compete with Missouri businesses without incurring tax liability in the state. Objections from other business groups and state officials have led to the removal of this unfair provision from the final deliberations. The final legislation will be determined by the conference committee and must be approved by both the House and Senate. As presently drafted, the annual cap on the Quality Jobs program would increase from $12 million to $30 million and the annual tax credit limit on the Enhanced Enterprise Zone program would increase from $7 million to $25 million. Our small business development legislation originally sponsored by Rep. Doug Ervin is also contained in HB 327. And a provision that would allow Missouri to better compete for manufacturing jobs by exempting from sales tax all utilities and other inputs used in manufacturing is also included. A similar exemption exists in Kansas and several other states. That exemption may also be found in SB 30 (sponsored by Senator Gary Nodler and handled in the House by Rep. Bryan Stevenson) and HB 131 (sponsored by Rep. Shannon Cooper and handled in the Senate by Senator Jason Crowell).

MEDC's exemption for local governments that are participating in Chapter 100 arrangements was included in a committee substitute for SB 582 by Rep. Mike Sutherland. The bill was approved by the House committee and will now be sent to the House floor for further debate. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Wes Shoemyer.

The MEDC thanks the sponsors and handlers of these pieces of legislation for their hard work and for making economic development a true priority of the 2007 legislative session.