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DALATC Kansas City Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Public Policy

Kansas City Seeks Change to Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit

by Michael R. Allen

Once again, state Senator Yvonne Wilson (D-Kansas City) has offered a bill to reduce the acreage ownership requirement of the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act from 50 to 30 acres. This bill is SB 682 and was first read on January 6. Wilson’s past attempts to pass this bill have gone nowhere.

However, the bill certainly has merit. If the courts uphold the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit, and the legislature lacks the will to kill it, the credit should be reformed. Wilson and Kansas City lawmakers would like to use the credit to aid in a Kansas City redevelopment project. Why shouldn’t they be able to get the credit changed, if it is truly a public benefit law under the Missouri Constitution?

Of course, the premise of the tax credit remains as dangerous as it was when first proposed in 2007, and the effect of the type of real estate activity it encourages is terrible for struggling neighborhoods. The tax credit’s main beneficiary has spawned copycat buying across north St. Louis. All we have to show are lost buildings, vacant buildings and neighborhoods caught up in a broadly-drawn development project that may not ultimately include them. It’s bad public policy, plain and simple. It could be a little better, though.

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DALATC Kansas City Missouri Missouri Legislature Northside Regeneration Public Policy

Bill Would Lower Acreage Requirements for Distressed Areas Tax Credit

by Michael R. Allen

Missouri State Senator Yvonne Wilson (D-9th), who represents Kansas City, has filed SB 814, a bill that would decrease the size of a project eligible under Missouri’s Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit (DALATC). Wilson’s bill would set the minimum project size at 40 acres, with an applicant required to own only 30 of those acres. The credit now requires projects to be 75 acres and applicants to own a minimum of 50 acres.

While there are numerous structural flaws with DALATC, and while 40 acres is still a fairly disruptive project size for urban areas, Wilson’s proposal is a step in the right direction.

Perhaps not coincidentally, reforming the DALATC is one of the planks in the 2008 Missouri Public Policy Agenda for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.