This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 26, 2011 - A day after the Missouri Senate effectively killed the nearly two month long special session, members of the House Democratic Caucus called a news conference at the Wainwright State Office Building downtown to decry the General Assembly's inability to pass an economic development bill.
That legislation -- which included incentives to help cement a "China hub" at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport -- died mainly due to disagreements between Senate and House Republicans. Democrats also criticized Republicans for not passing other bills to move the presidential primary from February to March and to end state control of the St. Louis Police Department.
"We think it's an abject failure of the Republican leadership in the Missouri House to let this jobs bill die," said Rep. Jake Hummel, D-St. Louis, who added that he chose the Wainwright Building for the news conference because an unemployment office is located there.
"We spent almost $300,000 of taxpayer money to get almost nothing done," he added.
Hummel noted that in 2010, a special session managed to accomplish the two tasks at hand -- passing an economic incentive package for a Ford plant in Kansas City and overhauling the state's pension system. He said failed GOP leadership prevented the same result this year.
"It's really a shame. They told us they had a deal. They went around the state saying 'we have a deal, we're going to pass jobs in this state, trust us,'" said Hummel, alluding to a fly-around earlier this summer by Republican legislative leaders to promote an alleged agreement on economic development legislation. "They failed."
One key source of disagreement between House Republicans and Senate Republicans was imposing expiration dates on most state tax credit programs, including the two largest that encourage historic preservation and the construction of low-income housing.
Senate Republicans wanted "sunsets" to provide leverage to change the programs when they expire and to allow some to disappear.
But House leaders, such as Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, said expiration dates would put many programs in danger of going away, especially if a senator filibusters reauthorization.
House Democrats overwhelmingly voted against placing "sunsets" on the programs, a fact Tilley noted last week in Jefferson City. He also said that no one should paint the issue as an intra-Republican squabble.
"You saw the vote. It was 131-17 on sunsets," Tilley said. "We had almost every Democrat or a big portion of the Democratic Caucus say the way the Senate acts right now, sunsets are not acceptable."
Hummel said "obviously" historic preservation tax credits are a big issue for urban areas such as St. Louis. But he said a deal could have been reached so the underlying bill could pass.
"We obviously don't want to see those tax credits go away," Hummel said. "Having said that, we have 9 percent unemployment. I think we could have worked out a deal at least to bring up the possibility of sunsets at some point. A tax credit can always be reintroduced. I understand the issue with having one or two senators kill that bill and letting that expire. But right now, the people of this state do not want to hear about a tax credit that can expire in 2016. They want to know about jobs now."
Hummel also said the Democrats voted against sunsets so that the bill could get to a conference committee and move forward.
"We were under the impression that we were going to a conference committee and work those issues out," Hummel said. "Obviously that did not happen. We were not allowed to go to conference committee. The Senate refused to play ball. But at the same time, the House refused to budge."
Rep. Tishaura Jones, D-St. Louis, said the special session amounted to a "legislative tit for tat," which she said was a consequence of term limits.
"Now because we have term limits, I don't think we can go back to the voters and say 'Hey, term limits have brought us this kind of stalemate and we need you to lift term limits or extend them,' Jones said. "Because now they don't trust us to do anything that they sent us to Jefferson City to do."
"So, I guess until our whole legislative body starts to rethink the idea of serving as a legislator and what that entails and that compromise is not a dirty word.... We will continue to have these legislative stalemates," she added.
A Different View Of 'China Hub'
While some of the Democratic state representatives supported the "China hub" proposal, at least one lawmaker present -- Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford, D-St. Louis -- criticized the plan as it went through the legislature.
"I wanted the 'Aerotropolis' part of the bill to match what experts about Aerotropolises -- including our airport director -- describe how to make that work," Oxford said. "So unless you put the facility at the airport, have a consolidation facility there that would combine cargos and ship them ... that's the way to make that work. But that's not the way the bill was written."
In particular, Oxford was critical of a requirement that would have only provided tax credits to sites of at least "100 contiguous developable acres located within 50 miles of an airport." Such a requirement, she said, limited the amount of people that could qualify.
Oxford's opposition to the China hub language found common cause with a number of conservative groups and Republican lawmakers .
And Oxford -- whose political views otherwise would probably not be described as conservative -- said she even got some plaudits from "Tea Party" adherents who opposed the China hub incentives.
"Some the folks that kind of identify with the Tea Party in the House came over and gave me back in the spring suggested questions I should ask in an inquiry with Caleb Jones," said Oxford, referring to the Clarksburg Republican who sponsored the China hub bill in the House. "[They] sort of cheered me on about it and thanked me for talking, which was very strange that they didn't get up and do it themselves."
Oxford though stopped short saying that it was a good thing the China hub incentives didn't end up passing during the special session.
"It could be very good for our region," she said. "I would have liked it to be shaped correctly."
Jason Rosenbaum, a freelance journalist in St. Louis, covers state government and politics.
