Missouri Coalition for Historic Preservation and Economic Development

For immediate release, please see this press release from the Coalition for Historic Preservation & Economic Development:

"Governor Nixon's tax credit commmission criticized as lacking enough representation of people who know economic benefits of Historic Tax Credits."

Please see this Executive Summary for a 2010 study on Historic Tax Credits, "An Evaluation of the Missouri Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program's Impact on Job Creation and Economic Activity Across the State." The study was prepared for the Missouri Growth Association and conducted by St. Louis University.

A link to the full Study can be found by clicking here.

See this article of the RCGA Special Edition, dated May 18th, 2010: ""Tax Credits Get a 'Bad Rap' in Jefferson City".

The Coalition agrees with Dan Mehan, President of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, who said in a press conference shown in the St. Louis Business Journal in April 2010, “Economic development is not anti-education and two should not be pitted against each other. Now, more than ever, Missouri needs a balanced approach that addresses both the needs of job creation and systems to provide an educated work force, The two do not work against each other. They go hand in hand.”

Representatives of pregnancy crisis centers, children's agencies, domestic violence shelters and Catholic charities teamed up Monday to tout the benefits of tax breaks for benevolent organizations.

Republican House leaders have defended tax credits as good economic development tools and have denounced efforts to sharply curtail them.

Rep. Shane Schoeller, R-Willard, who organized Monday's news conference with the charities, said he wants to delay any changes to Missouri's tax credit system for at least a year so it can be studied further.

Some charities oppose Gov. Jay Nixon's plan to rein in the state's tax credit programs, fearing that their funding source could be crowded out by politically influential recipients.

Rep. Shane Schoeller, R-Willard, and three other House Republicans held a press conference Monday with organizations that benefit from benevolent tax credits to express opposition to the governor's latest proposal.

Floated just last week, it would cap business and job development tax credits at $150 million, cap subsidies for low-income housing at $75 million and cap the rehabilitation of historic homes and buildings at $75 million annually. 

In March, Nixon's administration proposed reorganizing the state's roughly 60 tax credit programs into six general categories and capping certain tax credits at $314 million per year.

"These tax credits do leverage funds to raise many more times those dollars in local communities," said Cindi Boston, CEO of the Pregnancy Care Center in Springfield.

Republican House leaders have defended tax credits as good economic development tools and have denounced efforts to sharply curtail them.

Speaker of the House Ron Richard, R-Joplin, is opposed to Nixon's effort to rein in tax credits. He defends them as an important part of economic development.

Rep. John Diehl, R-Town and Country, favors a go-slow approach on overhauling tax credits. "I don't think there's anything we have to have if it means gutting the programs we have now," he said. "I don't see the House rushing to judgment on any of this."

The challenge is mostly one of time. As directed in the state constitution, the session ends at 6 p.m. Friday.

In late March, the MGA and SLU released a study showing that, over the last 10 years, the historic tax credits have helped create or retain more than 43,000 jobs and have led to more than $669 million in new sales and income tax revenue for state and local governments.

Researchers for the study found that every situation where historic tax credits were used, the credits sparked more development nearby and, in the case of Ste. Genevieve and Hermann, helped increase tourism. There were no situations they found in which the tax credits didn’t work in that way.

Developers in Joplin say the Governor's push for tax credit reform would hurt a program that has been central to revitalizing downtown Joplin. 

Kristen Blanchard, spokeswoman for Representative Ron Richard, R-Joplin, said Richard is "open to meeting with the governor and would support a comprehensive review of the program at some point, provided it was 'objective' and included a cost-benefit analysis of the tax credit programs."