In a letter to Gov. Jay Nixon on Tuesday, August 16, 2011, Missouri legislative leaders called on the governor to set a date for the September special session and put aside any "personal agenda" against proposed changes to the so-called "Paul McKee tax credit."
"You unilaterally announced ... that you were exempting land assemblage (tax credit) from the reform bill. There are many among us who believe that this energetic, but familiar, attack was designed to cast doubt on the overall soundness of our compromise and make it easier for you to work against other provisions of the legislation that are objectionable to you," Missouri Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Mayer and Missouri House Speaker Steven Tilley wrote. "Whatever your motives, we both feel that your continuing personal agenda, against an individual developer, and his transformative inner city project, has no place in this debate and should not impact the overall priority of tax credit reform."
Earlier this month, Nixon told lawmakers that he doesn't want the special session economic development package to include an expansion of the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage tax credit. McKee received $28 million in land assemblage tax credits to buy up large swaths of north St. Louis for his $8 billion NorthSide housing, office and retail development. One provision included in a draft version of the economic development package removes a five-year time limit on credits awarded for interest costs that McKee racks up when buying land.
On Tuesday, Mayer and Tilley said the legislature can call itself into special session but is waiting for Nixon to keep his word and call lawmakers back to Jefferson City. They told the governor that legislators should be given ample time to prepare to leave their "farms, small businesses and families" to come to the capital.
"The legislature has the hard task to pass (in a limited time) the most sweeping jobs and fiscal accountability legislation ever attempted," they wrote. "It will not be easy, but we are committed to pass this for our citizens. We will fail, however, if you continue to exclude items because of narrow personal bias or if you fail to communicate to our offices, except by press release on the scope and content of the call."
Sam Murphey, a spokesman for Nixon, said everything is still on track for a special session to convene in early September. "As we finalize the language of the call, we are working directly with members in both the House and the Senate with policy expertise to ensure that we have a crisp and focused special session to pass legislation to create jobs, finance disaster recovery and ensure that taxpayer dollars are invested responsibly," Murphey said. "Every week spent in a special session has a significant cost to taxpayers, so we want to make sure the General Assembly can complete its work in the most efficient and effective manner possible."
The land assemblage tax credit change was proposed as part of a larger economic development package that centers on $360 million in Aerotropolis tax credits to build a China trade hub at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, as well as caps and sunsets on historic and low-income housing tax credits. The economic development deal includes a $90 million annual cap on historic tax credits, a $110 million cap for low-income housing tax credits and a seven-year sunset for both tax credit programs. The jobs proposal would also create the Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act fund to attract high-tech jobs to the state, incentives to encourage data centers to locate in Missouri, new job training programs and an amateur sports event attraction tax credit to assist in attracting national sporting events to Missouri.
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