Wake up southwest Missouri, tax credit spending is out of control and we are being robbed. Since 1997, historic preservation tax credits have slowly, but surely, allowed companies to make big bucks off this cash cow and they can’t seem to wean themselves off of it. Why would they? After all, these companies, whose stakeholders don’t even all reside in Missouri, are accepting hundreds of millions of dollars every year from Missouri taxpayers.
This year alone, $629 million will be doled out to those privileged few. That’s 8.6 percent of our state’s budget. The recipients of this money get Missourians’ hard-earned tax dollars. This money comes right off the top of the state budget, even before we pay our debts or fund public education, which by the way is a constitutional obligation in Missouri. So, how can we stop this?
To put this waste into perspective, Missouri gives out more in tax credits than we invest in corrections, mental health, MoDOT and early childhood education, not to mention many other areas that need an increase in appropriations. In Cape Girardeau, a developer received over $16 million in Missouri tax credits to renovate an old school building into low-income housing. They would provide this money for a developer, but provide no money to renovate the school for its original purpose of educating kids. And get this: Missouri even spends more money than Virginia on “historic” tax credits. We must get a grip on tax credits, and soon. Tax credits in Missouri need some reasonable limits and legislative oversight.
People are also reading…
It is true that most of our state’s historic tax credits go to a few folks in Kansas City and St. Louis. How the old buildings in our two largest downtown cities “qualify” for your money is a lesson in politics in itself.
But, this is not the essence of my concern. The alarm going off in my head is focused on what appears to be a crazy system of giving a few folks a whole lot of our money. The big question here is, why are we giving away our current tax money to turn around and have to raise more taxes later? And for what?
If the answer is, in part, to give an incentive to rehabilitate historic buildings — usually in downtown city areas — then I can show you a lot of old school buildings, old bridges, old mental health facilities that have great historic value too, especially to the many Missourians who would benefit from such an investment.
So, what do we do about this calamity that is happening right before our very eyes? For starters, eliminate ineffective tax credits and establish caps on specific programs. But the most important thing we can do is ensure there is oversight of these programs. Missouri should institute sunset dates for all tax credits so they must be reauthorized by lawmakers; another option is to subject tax credits to state appropriations. There have been legislative bills proposed in the past. Last year HB 1865 would have among other things put a cap on historic preservation tax credits, but failed.
We don’t need to raise taxes to provide additional revenue; we just need to rein in tax credit spending. If tax credits seem out of line to you too, then speak up, especially to those elected to serve our communities and great state of Missouri.
Stephen Kleinsmith is superintendent of the Nixa, Mo., school district.
