Category: Missouri Legislature

Missouri Legislature Northside Regeneration

Have You Thanked Governor Blunt Yet?

Post author By Michael R. Allen
Post date July 10, 2007

by Michael R. Allen

On Friday, Governor Matt Blunt vetoed the economic development omnibus (HB 327) that contained the tax credits designed for Paul McKee’s north St. Louis project. I’m sure that you sent your letter of thanks, because you know that the best way to get good behavior from an elected official is to provide positive reinforcement. After all, we all know the tax credit proposal will be back again, and likely on Governor Blunt’s desk once more before the next election.

Wait, you haven’t thanked the Governor? Well, go ahead and do so.

Letters can be sent here:

Governor Matt Blunt
Room 216, State Capitol Building
Jefferson City MO 65101

Phone calls can be directed to:

(573) 751-3222

There there is e-mail:

Contact form here.

Governor Blunt Vetoes HB 327, Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credits

Post author By Michael R. Allen
Post date July 6, 2007

Pub Def has the good news: McKee Tax Credit Vetoed

Missouri Legislature North County North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Media Coverage of McKee’s North St. Louis Plans Has Increased

Post author By Michael R. Allen
Post date July 6, 2007

by Michael R. Allen

Here is a review of recent media coverage of Paul J. McKee, Jr.’s plans for north St. Louis. Times have changed when all I have to do is link to the work of others.

Even on Donnybrook

The old gang on KETC’s Donnybrook program brought up Paul McKee’s plans for north St. Louis on the June 28 show. Ray Hartmann and Bill McClellan make good points critical of the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act and McKee’s silence, while Charles Brennan and Martin Duggan wonder why people are upset. Watch the show here (the discussion starts about twelve minutes into the program).

Making the news all over the state

On July 2, Southeast Missourian business editor Rudi Keller published a column entitled “One person may qualify for new tax credit”.

Keller also published a blog entitled “The $100 million man” on July 2.

The Kinder connection

On June 26, Fired Up! Missouri blogger Howard Beale reported that NorthPark Partners, the development partnership that includes Paul McKee’s McEagle Properties, hired David Barklage as a lobbyist in April. Barklage is a long-time associate of Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder. Beale speculates that the recent inexplicable claim that the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act has more to do with NorthPark than north St. Louis has a lot to do with the hiring of Barklage.

If Vetoed, Land Assemblage Proposal Could Be Improved to Address Concerns

Post author By Michael R. Allen
Post date May 22, 2007

by Michael R. Allen

Governor Matt Blunt has not yet signed or vetoed the economic omnibus bill passed by the Missouri Legislature (HB 327) that contains the $100 million tax credit program to benefit Paul J. McKee Jr.’s north St. Louis land assemblage project.

Meanwhile, no other bills containing the “Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act,” as the proposal for the credits is formally known, passed the both houses. The House inserted the land assemblage tax credit into SB 22, a bill concerning local political subdivisions, but during a joint conference on the bill Rep. Thomas Villa had the language removed. (However, Villa is a co-sponsor of HB 991, which would directly enact the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act, and voted in favor of HB 327.)

The Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act is far from the most controversial part of HB 327, a bloated bill containing many questionable tax credit proposals and bearing an estimated cost of $113 million in lost state revenue. Should Blunt veto the bill, the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act would be defeated for now.

Of course, the proposal will return. Two obvious paths exist:

The proposal could return in its current form, engendering the same opposition as it has attracted from north side residents, progressive legislators and urbanists.

The proposal could be refined through conversation with critics so that their concerns are answered.

Personally, I love the idea of a $100 million tax credit program directed at north St. Louis. Given that many residents of surrounding, wealthier counties are the descendants of those who abandoned north St. Louis, but who are still culturally and economically dependent on the city (which cannot tap the revenues of its neighboring counties), state aid is logical and fair. However, the details of the proposal do not create the sound public policy that should be crafted to guarantee that the $100 million program actually results in quality development in north St. Louis.

– The project size is greatly out of scale with north St. Louis. Nowhere in north St. Louis do 50 contiguous acres of vacant land exist. The largest vacant site is the Pruitt-Igoe housing project site of 33 acres, which remains undeveloped. The proposal should reduce the minimum project size to 5 acres and cap it at 45 acres. This would encourage more context-sensitive planning, and allow multiple developers with different plans to utilize the tax credit.

– State tax credits should not be used to cover bills and fines from municipal government for code violations or demolition. That’s just wrong.

– The tax credit needs to require that the applicant’s properties meet municipal codes at the time of application. State law should not encourage the violation of municipal law.

– The tax credit should establish a time line for redevelopment. Land assemblage alone does not revitalize distressed areas. If that was the case, north St. Louis would be in great shape given the vast amount of city-owned real estate there. The proposal should provide greater guarantee that assemblage projects will lead to actual development.

– The tax credit should not be used to acquire occupied housing units. What is most needed on the north side is creative reuse of vacant property. Allowing use of the credit for occupied housing seems to encourage the displacement of existing residents. McKee’s project has involved acquisition of dozens of occupied dwellings that are now vacant nuisance properties. The people his agents moved out of north St. Louis could have been stakeholders in renewal efforts.

– The tax credit should require historic preservation planning for affected areas. North St. Louis is one of the most architecturally significant areas in eastern Missouri, and should not be bulldozed wholesale. As written, the tax credit actually reimburses up to 100% of demolition costs.

Should the tax credit proposal be defeated, there is then a chance to improve it greatly. Hopefully its supporters will consider doing so.

Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

North St. Louis Landbanking Proposal May Be Dead for This Session

Post author By Michael R. Allen
Post date May 16, 2007

by Michael R. Allen

HB 327, the costly omnibus economic development bill passed from the Missouri Legislature that includes the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act, may be headed for a veto from Governor Matt Blunt.

SB 22, which modified laws relating to political subdivisions, that inappropriately contains the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act (oddly with a 100-acre minimum), appears to be dead this session.

HB 991 contains only the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act, but has not proceeded. The prospect of an up-or-down vote directly on the proposal probably doesn’t appeal to the proposal’s backers. For one thing, the process could lead to amendments that would make the credits actual public policy instead of a law for private benefit. For another, this tax credit proposal is one of the least popular bundled into the omnibus.

Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Bill With McKee’s North St. Louis Credits Passes

Post author By Michael R. Allen
Post date May 12, 2007

by Michael R. Allen

Yesterday the Missouri House truly passed HB 327, sometimes known as the Quality Jobs Act. The bill contains the $100 million Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act sought by St. Charles County developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. for his massive, controversial north St. Louis “Blairmont” project.

St. Louis area Representatives Jeanette Mott-Oxford, Mike Daus, Michael Vogt and Jamilah Nasheed voted no. All other St. Louisans voted in favor of the bloated “economic development” bill.

The Distressed Areas credits received strong support from St. Louis city and county governments as well as McKee’s McEagle Properties. Opponents never coalesced into a formidable lobby despite strong individual efforts and no existing organization took up their cause.

Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration St. Louis Place

Silence is Golden

by Michael R. Allen

Here is the house at 1941 Wright Street in September 2006. This is a modest side-gabled brick house with corbelling and a centered dormer, like many other late 19th century houses on the near north and near south sides. These buildings were actually tenements, with no internal staircases and no indoor plumbing. Access to the second floor came through a rear gallery porch. Typically, these homes were extended by a narrower half-flounder addition at rear of anywhere from two to four additional rooms. The addition created a covered ell where a gallery porch typically stands; the additions rarely have original internal stairs. This house has a notably deep rear addition.

Never mind the vinyl windows and other historically inappropriate alterations that the house has accumulated. This photograph shows a structurally sound, reasonably maintained occupied dwelling. Shortly after I took this photograph, on October 30, 2006, a new owner filed a warranty deed showing a sale of the property for $109,250. The new owner: Sheridan Place LC, a holding company controlled by developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. The sellers moved out, and Sheridan Place LC and affiliated companies subsequently purchased every building on both sides of this block save for one large row to the immediate west of 1941 Wright.

Moving forward to April 2007, we find very different conditions at the house.

All of the windows and doors have been stripped, and the yard is strewn with litter. Most disturbing, however, is the building’s interior where the first floor rooms are piled with bags of construction debris.

Inside of these bags is white pipe insulation, heavy with asbestos. Someone wanting to avoid the dumping fees of this waste chose to stash the bags here. Sadly, this is a common practice in the city of St. Louis. Bags of asbestos-laden waste can be found in neglected vacant buildings and on vacant lots all over the city.

In just six months of McKee’s ownership, the house at 1941 Wright Street has gone from housing a family to being packed with hazardous waste. While obviously McKee and his agents did not dump the waste and cannot prevent such incidents, they have total control over the enabling factors. McKee decided to buy occupied housing units and remove the residents, thus creating opportunities for nuisance crimes and illegal dumping. McKee has avoided maintenance of these properties down to the basic act of boarding up a building like this one. (Citizen’s Service Bureau registered a citizen complaint for unsecured vacant building at this address on December 19, 2006 with resolution of sending the owner a secure notice.)

There is no doubt that McKee wishes to collect the land assemblage tax credits that are part of various bills pending in the Missouri Legislature. The house at 1941 Wright is just one of over 100 historic buildings, many occupied at time of purchase, that McKee has purchased for his north St. Louis project. The decline of its condition is a story that could be repeated address by address in Old North St. Louis, St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou with different variants like fires, brick rustling and drug dealing. When locals are in doubt about whether or not a sale to McKee’s companies have gone through, they only look at a house. If the windows are gone and the door is wide open, they know that the new owner has taken possession — the sad creation of an “eligible parcel” under the proposed land assemblage tax credit.

Could any reasonable person assume that McKee and his agents have conducted due diligence of compliance with city codes for vacant properties? The contrary seems true — flagrant contempt for those codes. McKee’s companies have perpetuated demolition by neglect on a huge scale. If the aim of the endeavor is to “bulldoze the ghetto,” as a flier circulated earlier this year stated, there seems to be inflation of supply and demand by the agents of the project. Taking occupied houses and safe blocks and allowing them to be stripped, pillaged and burned creates a ghetto that did not exist before. The effect creates more dramatic images of blight for public relations purposes. Yet the cause is falsely attributed to the very people who were displaced and are no longer around to create the ghetto — and who were probably afraid of such conditions as those that have now befallen their homes.

While Mayor Francis Slay may urgently call for passage of the tax credits, his silence on the specifics of McKee’s operation is telling. No apology could hide the conditions of the over 640 properties now controlled by McKee’s companies. All narratives inspire counter-narratives beyond political control; best to go clinical and talk of static things such as “blight” and “parcels.” Any narrative would have to include the white flight and the inability of city planners in 1947 to do anything but wish to kill neighborhoods like the ones affected by McKee’s project. The story would include a culture of political apathy where white mayors and black aldermen alike ignored the causes and blinded themselves to the symptoms. The story would have to admit that racially-explosive notions of “depletion” became public policy by default, and that the current actors on the near north side have just appropriated old ideas as their own rather than seeking innovative new policies. The story that could be told would discredit almost everyone.

Missouri Legislature Northside Regeneration

Kennedy, Hubbard Support Tax Credits for North Side Mega-Plan

Post author By Michael R. Allen
Post date May 4, 2007

by Michael R. Allen

The Missouri Senate Newsroom has slow-to-download audio and video files of Sens. John Griesheimer (R-26th) and Harry Kennedy (D-1st) stating their support for the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act. Griesheimer even goes so far as to state that if he thought the proposal was a bad idea, he “wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.”

State Representative Rodney Hubbard (D-58th) spoke in favor of the proposal on the house floor and dismissed critics by insinuating that they did not care about the needs of north St. Louis. Hubbard’s July 2006 Quarterly campaign finance report shows contributions from several upper-level McEagle Properties employees (including Chris McKee and Bruce Sokolik) as well as development attorney Steve Stone and his firm Stone, Leyton & Gershman. Stone testified in favor of the Distressed Areas proposal at a special House hearing this week.

The Distressed Areas language is found in a version of HB 327 that the House approved 146-9 on Tuesday, with St. Louis representatives Mike Daus (D-67th), Connie Johnson (D-61st) and Jeanette Mott-Oxford (D-59th) voting against the proposal. Please give them your thanks.

Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Bill With Land Assemblage Tax Credits Could Die in Senate

Post author By Michael R. Allen
Post date May 3, 2007

by Michael R. Allen

Rep. Ron Richard, sponsor of controversial economic development bill HB 327, today moved that the Missouri House refuse to move on the House’s acceptance of the conference version of the bill. That version includes the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act, the tax credit developer Paul McKee seeks for north St. Louis.

Apparently, the bill faces strong opposition in the Missouri Senate due to the number of different bills that were added on through amendment without their own hearings, including the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act.

Richard’s motion would prevent the bill from returning to conference. If the Senate rejects the version of the bill that the House approved today, the bill is effectively dead. However, the Distressed Areas language remains intact in SB 282 and SB 22 (in an inexplicable 100-acre version) as well as HB 991.

Mayor Slay Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Urgent: "Blairmont" Tax Credits Pass Missouri House, Headed for Senate Tomorrow

Post author By Michael R. Allen
Post date May 2, 2007

by Michael R. Allen

Here’s some timely news: The Missouri House passed, 146-9, the conference report on HB 327, which includes the tax credit for land assemblage that Paul McKee wants to use in north St. Louis. Apparently the report will be heard in the Senate tomorrow morning, and supposedly St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay will appear in person in support of the bill’s passage.

Basically, senators need to hear from people by the end of today. So if you read this before 4:30 p.m. please email or call your state senator. Contact information for senators is here.