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Issue: 1105 Date: 10/27/2011
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China Hub incentives grounded for now, but may fly later
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Mike Jones, chairman of the region's China Hub Commission, says the effort to persuade China to locate a cargo hub at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport remains alive despite the General Assembly's failure to pass related tax incentives.
But he acknowledges that the legislature did inflict a wound.
"By not getting anything done, you put your future in the hands of other people,'' Jones said. "We did not do ourselves any favors."
By that, Jones was referring to how the General Assembly's inaction might be perceived by Chinese officials who will determine where a regional hub will be situated -- and by the other Midwestern cities jockeying for the project.
The state Senate and House had each approved $60 million in tax credits to encourage freight-forwarders to direct international cargo to Lambert. But the credits were part of a larger economic development bill that appears to be dead, as a result of disagreements on unrelated provisions. The Senate, in effect, killed the package Monday.
Lambert has a two-year contract for one China cargo shipment a week, but Jones said more cargo traffic is needed for the hub project to take shape.
A key part of that effort had been the tax incentives, particularly to encourage needed infrastructure development around Lambert. Both chambers had stripped out a proposed $300 million in additional tax credits for such construction, but state economic-development officials had indicated that there may be administrative routes to obtaining some of that aid.
Such alternate avenues remain, Jones said, but the lack of legislative action could send the wrong signal to the Chinese and other countries looking at Lambert.
"A fair reading of this is that you put in a 'question mark,' " Jones said. "Those doing business are making judgments about you based on the behavior they see." |
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