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JEFFERSON CITY | Gov. Jay Nixon swung by the Missouri House this morning to commend lawmakers' efforts in working through differences on his No. 1-priority legislation.
Bills to enhance the state's job creation incentives have been stalled for weeks in the senate, as lawmakers have tried to amend them with tax-credit reform measures.
Today, however, Nixon said he saw progress being made in the discussions among senators and between the Senate and House.
"I wouldn't want to step inside their negotiations other than to say I really feel much better about where we are on the bill," he said. "They've been working hard in a bipartisan way with folks in the Senate.
"I'm cautiously optimistic that next week is going to be a good week for that bill."
Reached for comment this afternoon, one of the bill's chief architects, Rep. Tim Flook, outlined several of the compromises being discussed.
One of the major sticking points for the bill is a proposed cap on Historic Preservation Tax Credits, which the state issues to developers who renovate aging buildings.
Reformers want to cap the program well below the $160 to $170 million it currently issues annually, but urban democrats like Sen. Jeff Smith, a St. Louis Democrat, staunchly defend it as a critical tool for rescuing decaying cities.
Under the compromises being discussed, Flook said, the program would be capped somewhere "north of $100 million" and exceptions would be granted for projects in smaller towns. One concern with capping the program is that large-scale projects in Kansas City and St. Louis would eat up all the available funds, shutting out smaller projects.
The bill could also see new restrictions on the Missouri Development Finance Board, which currently can approve vast tax-credit awards without oversight from the legislature. A few smaller tax-credit programs may be eliminated entirely, Flook said.
The legislation will definitely include an expansion of the Quality Jobs program, the Liberty Republican said, as well as new or expanded tax credits for research and development projects and venture capitalists who invest in the state. Those are the measures at the top of Nixon's wishlist.
The measures are likely to be included on a Senate bill that moved over to the House late last month. The goal, Flook said, is to amend the language onto a Senate bill in the House and then take the bill to a conference between the chambers, so that the details of the compromise can be finalized.
On the other side of the building, Sen. Brad Lager also said the bill was making progress.
Lager has led the effort to rein in the state's various tax-credit programs.
"I believe we will find a happy medium on tax-credit reform and an economic-development package and I have no reason to believe anything but that will occur," he said.
Lager said there was no timeframe for when the legislation may come back up for floor debate. The session ends May 15, leaving 15 legislative days to go.