February 12, 2012

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Governor-backed auto industry incentives introduced

January 26, 2012 By
The automotive industry incentive component of the Governor’s job creation strategy has found its backers in the House and Senate, and they come from both sides of the political aisle.
 
In his State of the State Address and stops around the state, Governor Jay Nixon has promoted his Missouri Works plan. It would expand on the provisions of the Missouri Manufacturing Jobs act of 2010, which helped promote expansion at Ford’s Claycomo Plant in Kansas City and General Motors’ plant in Wentzville. Legislation introduced this week basically targets those incentives at manufactures in the automotive industry.
 

Representative Chuck Gatschenberger (R-Lake St. Louis) is sponsoring HB 1455.

The House version, HB 1455, will be carried by Representative Chuck Gatschenberger (R-Lake St. Louis). He says, “Those manufacturers of vehicles … they need brakes, they need windshields, they need trim, they need engines … and not all of those are built right there on that spot.”

Parts makers qualify under the proposal if the products they make are used by an automaker. Companies with at least half of their sales coming from parts used to modify vehicles can also qualify for incentives.

Gatschenberger says it offers two options to those companies. “One is if you employee five employees, you’re gonna get the same benefits with withholding the taxes that you pay from the state for the benefit of the company. The other aspect of it … there’s a lot of companies in this state that are not going to be able to employ five people but they can employ two people. If they do two people and $100,000 of investment in their business, they can fall under the same guidelines.”

Gatschenberger says it also includes some clawback provisions.  ”Let’s say they have those two people but they lay two other people off. Then they lose the benefit. It’s not the specific people that they hire, it’s the total number of people.”

See the Governor’s Office’s release on the introduction of the legislation.

The package increases the standard incentive period to five years, from the three found in the 2010 language. Companies would get a tax break equaling 5 percent of their new payroll if wages are at the average for the county, 5.5 percent for wages that are 120 percent of that average and 6 percent for wages at least 140 percent of the county average.

Senator Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) is the sponsor of SB 691.

Gatschenberger notes the package opens up incentives to all auto manufacturers, not just Ford and General Motors, “So if Nissan thinks, ‘Hmm, we might want to put a plant somewhere but where are we going to put a plant,’ it’s making the carrot bigger and jucier.”

The Governor’s Office says the package boasts a lengthy list of bipartisan supporters. Also in the House are Speaker Steven Tilley (R-Perryville), Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones (R-Eureka), Jerry Nolte (R-Gladstone), Minority Leader Mike Talboy (D-Kansas City), Assistant Minority Floor Leader Tishaura Jones (D-St. Louis), Minority Whip Mike Colona (D-St. Louis), Representative Stephen Webber (D-Columbia) and Representative Bert Atkins (D-Florrisant). Senator Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) is sponsoring the Senate version, SB 691 with Minority Floor Leader Senator Victor Callahan (D-Independence) a co-sponsor.

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Nixon takes positive tone in message to legislature (AUDIO)

January 17, 2012 By

The Governor took a mostly rallying approach to his State of the State Address.

Jay Nixon began by highlighting Missouri’s response to the disasters in the state last year. He keyed on the inspirational words of one Joplin tornado survivor, “always take that extra step.”

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon presents his State of the State Address to a joint session of the state legislature. Picture courtesy, Tim Bommel, Missouri House of Representatives.

Nixon touted that the state has not raised taxes and has reduced the size of government. With his proposed budget, he says, he reduces the state’s payroll by 4,100 positions. A total of 816 reductions are included in the new proposal. He notes the state’s workforce is the smallest its been in 15 years.

The address did not include the specifics of his proposed $106 million cut from the state’s 4-year and community colleges, but he did allude to it.

“To balance our budget in a way that protects our scholarships and academic programs I’m calling on our colleges and universities to continue to look for more ways to cut overhead and administrative costs and run smarter, more efficient operations.”

He said colleges and universities will have to change their business models. An example he offered is the “Innovation Campus” program at the University of Central Missouri.

“Students will enroll in college courses while still in high school and then participate in high-impact apprenticeships throughout the college curriculum.” he says. “Corporate partners will underwrite tuition scholarships and faculty and employees will partner to guide each student.”

Nixon encouraged the state’s institutions to develop similar programs.

The Governor stressed budget priorities, including education.

“For the past three years, even in challenging budget times, we’ve maintained level funding for our K-12 classrooms,” Nixon says. “This year we’re gonna take the next step. The budget I present tonight provides record funding for our K-12 classrooms because it’s the right thing to do.”

Some of Nixon’s calls to the legislature were familiar. In his only chide of the night he said, “For the past three years I’ve called for comprehensive tax credit reform. Some of you in this room stood with me on that issue, others did not.”

Nixon says over the past four years more than $2 billion in state tax credits have been redeemed. He re-iterated the call to pass legislation to retool and reform tax credits. He also urges legislators to create bills on charter school accountability and to increase the number of professionals working with autistic children.

Another priority that carries over is that of campaign finance limits. Nixon told the joint session, “When one person with an axe to grind can make an unlimited contritbution to advance a narrow agenda, when lobbyists for powerful interests can tip the balance in an election, the very foundations of our democracy are at risk.

AUDIO: Listen to Governor Jay Nixon’s 2012 State of the State Address (54 mins.)

AUDIO: Mike Lear reports (1 min.)

Filed Under: Business, Economy, Education, Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Health & Medicine, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Nixon hopes to avoid tapping Rainy Day Fund, for now

January 6, 2012 By
The State of Missouri’s Budget Reserve Fund has still not been tapped into in response to the disasters of 2011. Governor Jay Nixon hopes it won’t have to be, if only in the short-term.
 

Governor Jay Nixon discussed the use of the Rainy Day Fund following the annual Governor's Prayer Breakfast.

Nixon says it might be used later, as costs are still being assessed from events like the Joplin tornado and flooding in northwest and southeast Missouri. “Because of some of the bills that are yet to come in, because of the insurance claims that haven’t been met, because of the gaps especially in schools and other public facilities down there (in Joplin) between the insurance coverage, we still may have to have that as an option.”

State statute requires that any amount taken out of the Rainy Day Fund be paid back to it within three years, with interest. Nixon says that means taking out money now could compound challenges of balancing the budget in future years.

The Governor says he plans to talk to legislative leadership over the next one to two weeks about how to proceed in the “best and most prudent financial way.”

Filed Under: Economy, Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

Joplin pastor uses Governor’s Prayer Breakfast to say ‘thank you’ (AUDIO)

January 5, 2012 By

A pastor from Joplin says the support that as followed the devastating May 22 tornado is one of the state’s “finest hours.”

Pastor Randy Gariss of College Heights Christian Church keynotes the 2012 Governor's Prayer Breakfast.

Some will remember College Heights Christian Church pastor Randy Gariss for presiding over an internationally televised memorial service a week after that tornado, attended by President Barack Obama and Governor Jay Nixon. Gariss was the keynote speaker at the annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday morning.

He used the opportunity to express gratitude to all those who have come to his community’s aid in the last seven months.

“I don’t know where you say ‘thank you.’ I don’t know what crowd…this is the most appropriate place I know of. By the thousands you came. You came in ones and twos and you came as families in pickups and SUVs and you came as busload after busload. We looked up and there you were. I don’t know how you got there so quick. You were right beside us and you stayed. A great movie with a director and music in the background could not do justice for what it was like to see you.”

Life now in Joplin is a mixed bag, says Gariss. People who have relationships and connections in the town are faring the best. “The individuals that are struggling the most are the individuals that were renters, didn’t own or perhaps didn’t have extended family in town, perhaps a little more the broken families. If they didn’t already have pretty strong relationship ties it’s still a hard winter for them.”

Gariss says what people who have not been to Joplin since the tornado need to understand is difficult to relate. “I would say that it would be that sense of deep, abiding loss and fear. That you think life has sort of a normal pace to it, normal elements you can handle, and the rug entirely comes (out from under you). Even individuals that are building back, they’re afraid of that next rug. They find a great terror about when’s it going to happen again…not necessarily that thing but the next thing.” Gariss says Joplin’s counseling centers are full of people trying to figure out how to handle fear.

He says there is a flip side, however. “There are individuals who will tell you they’ve never had deeper friendships than they have now. We can live isolated until you have a crisis. The one experience now is that you watch, people hug each other…I watched two men stand there to be the John Waynes holding and hugging and talking to each other that have never ever before. Friendships are deeper.”

AUDIO:  Listen to Pastor Randy Gariss’ keynote address from the 2012 Governor’s Prayer Breakfast – 27 minutes

Filed Under: Featured, Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Human Interest, News, Weather Tagged With: , , , ,

Governor’s plan to borrow universities’ money ‘off the table’

January 5, 2012 By

Governor Jay Nixon will not be seeking money from the state’s largest universities to help balance the budget.

Governor Jay Nixon addressed questions from the media following the Governor's Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning.

In December word circulated that the Nixon Administration was floating an idea to take $106 million from the reserves of five Missouri universities to support the higher education operating budget. Nixon says now, “That’s off the table.”

Nixon says the idea was merely one of many that was thrown around early in considering how to address what his budget director says is a $500 million gap between revenues and expenses in the fiscal year 2013 budget. “There were a series of ideas…remain a series of ideas…about how you get to a balanced number. Contained within those was the thought that perhaps instead of expending additional dollars on bricks and mortar, that those dollars could be put in the classroom, and that would be something that would make a difference in the short run here with the budget challenge.”

The Governor says he will continue to look for ways to put money into K-12 public school, college and university classrooms. He says what cust have to occur will come from administration.

Nixon will reveal his proposed fiscal year 2013 budget and other priorities in his State of the State Address, Tuesday January 17 at 7 p.m.  A spokesman for the Governor says he will not discuss any more about his fiscal plan until then.

Filed Under: Economy, Education, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,
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