JEFFERSON CITY • Republican House members want Gov. Jay Nixon to provide details about the cost and the expected return for taxpayers if Missouri offers an incentive package to lure a major Boeing Co. plant.
Those were the chief concerns that House Republicans voiced Monday in a closed meeting with Nixon, Speaker Tim Jones told reporters. Jones, R-Eureka, said he expects more information to be provided today, when legislative committees hold public hearings on the fast-moving proposal.
Nixon, who also met privately with the Senate Republican Caucus, said in the Capitol hallway afterward that he had “good solid discussions” with legislators and will provide “more concrete details” soon.
Nixon called the Legislature into a special session that began late Monday. The only bill on the agenda is one that would beef up several economic development programs to provide up to $150 million a year in tax breaks in hopes of bringing Boeing’s 777X commercial airplane assembly plant to St. Louis County. A Senate committee hearing on the bill is scheduled today.
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One person they’ll hear from is St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. In an interview Monday, Slay called the Boeing plant “the biggest opportunity for job creation that we’ve seen in some time.” To win it, Missouri will need to make Boeing a strong offer.
“This is a business deal. It’s a competition with other states,” he said. “If we do nothing, we will get nothing.”
St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley will also testify, a spokeswoman said.
Boeing sent requests for proposals to a reported 12 to 15 states after plans to build its newest commercial jet near Seattle fell through. Many of those states are likely to offer lucrative incentive packages. Nixon has said that states’ responses are due Dec. 10.
Nixon wants to expand several existing tax credit and job training programs, including a new one called Missouri Works. He stressed Monday that Boeing wouldn’t receive any of the subsidies unless it created the promised jobs.
A Boeing spokesman said the company would not have anyone testifying today and declined comment on Nixon’s proposal.
Jones said members are withholding judgment on the proposal until the key elements are clear.
Jones noted that Nixon, a Democrat, “campaigned very exuberantly” last summer to sustain his veto of an income tax cut passed by the Republican-led Legislature.
“We all support Boeing,” the speaker said. “Our question is, why this tax break at this time, instead of providing tax relief for all Missouri businesses?”
The aerospace incentive bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, and in the House by Rep. Anne Zerr, R-St. Charles.
The two-page Senate bill takes a simple approach: It accommodates the Boeing project by raising the caps on how much the state can spend on four existing incentive programs.
To be eligible for up to $150 million a year, an aerospace project would have to create at least 2,000 jobs within 10 years. But if Missouri wins the plant, legislators expect many more jobs than that. Schmitt said the state was bidding on “potentially 8,000 direct jobs and tens of thousands of indirect jobs, whether they be suppliers or construction jobs.”
Even so, given the size of the incentive package and the short timetable, passage is not assured.
“It’s an extraordinary ask of the Legislature,” said Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles.
Some Republican senators have called for cuts in the historic preservation tax credit and other programs to offset any aerospace credits.
But Nixon worded the special session agenda in a way that limits it to discussing only the four programs that would be increased.
Tim Logan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Virginia Young is the Jefferson City bureau chief of the Post-Dispatch. Follow her on twitter at @virginiayoung.
