Committee endorses economic-development bill w/ link to summary and full text of HB 1

By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Speakers embraced elements of a proposed economic-development bill before a House committee on Tuesday.

The measure was unanimously endorsed by the House Committee on Job Creation and Economic Development, and will be considered by the House on Thursday, said Rep. Ron Richard, R-Joplin.

The measure is a focus of the special legislative session that began Monday. Gov. Matt Blunt called lawmakers back to the Capitol to act on a new economic-development bill.

Blunt vetoed an earlier version passed in the regular session, saying elements added to that bill made it too costly.

The version endorsed Tuesday has a price tag of $51 million, compared with $200 million for the earlier bill, said Richard, committee chairman and the bill’s sponsor.

“We believe this proposal is fiscally responsible,” said Richard, who was part of a joint House-Senate committee that pared down the earlier legislation.

He said more than 30 amendments that were added in the regular session have been removed, but some of them will be revisited in the next regular session.

Richard spoke on behalf of the legislation, as did Greg Steinhoff, head of the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Steinhoff said the bill would build on the successes of the Quality Jobs Act, which he said has generated more than 17,000 new jobs across the state.

But, he said, incentives under the current legislation have been exhausted, and thousands of new jobs hinge on expanded spending caps for economic-development projects in the new bill.

“A lot of companies are interested in Missouri and are watching what happens here,” Steinhoff said.

The bill would expand tax credits available for employers who create new jobs that pay above-average wages and provide 50 percent of the health-insurance costs for employees.

The measure also would expand incentives that are available in the state’s enhanced enterprise zone program and expands a job-retraining program through Missouri colleges.