Twenty years and 800-million dollars is a little intimidating to some lawmakers who hold the key to Missouri’s biggest single job-producing effort in years.
The state is offering as much as 40-million dollars in tax credits for 22 years, and other goodies not made public, as it courts Canadian airplane maker Bombardier Aerospace. Bombardier is thinking of building its next generation of airliners at a new factory at Kansas City International Airport. More than two-thousand jobs are at stake at the factory and another three-thousand might materialize at suppliers setting up shop in the area.
But some senators worry about long term commitments of that much taxpayer money. They’re concerned that the state will have to cut programs or not be able to strengthen programs because it is letting Bombardier keep as much as $40-million in taxes each year for more than two decades. Senator Jason Crowell of Cape Girardeau wants the legislature to have veto power over the final deal. But sponsor Charlie Shields says Crowell’s idea would be a deal-killer.
Lee’s Summit Senator Matt Bartle thinks the deal is a bad one to begin with. He’s not going to support any deal that involves predicting the market for airplanes 22 years from now.
Shields says he has seen nothing like this opportunity in his 18 years in the legislature. He’s expecting a lot more talk before action is taken.
Download Bob Priddy’s story (:60 mp3)
