Missouri Legislators - a late attempt from the Jackals | Tax Credit Archives | Informative Articles | Missouri Tax Credits

No session of the Missouri Legislature would be complete without an 11th hour attempt to drastically curtail the Missouri historic tax credit program.

The Missouri Senate just passed a bill that will cap the historic tax credit program at $75 million per year, with no small deal exemption. This is a drastic cut from the current cap of $140 million. The bill is the Senate Substitute for HB1865, sponsored by Sen. Lembke.

Even though the House has already passed HB1865 to extend sunsets for many social service tax credits due to expire this year, several senators refused to allow those programs to continue unless the historic program was slashed, and the bill was passed out of the Senate with the new cap.

Sens. Keaveny, Schaffer, and Curls were stalwart supporters of the Historic program.

The bill will now go to the House for consideration. We still have strong support in the House and are hopeful that they will not take this up, but this is a hot issue and it's the end of the session, so about anything goes.

It's really unfortunate that a few senators feel the need to hold good social programs hostage for this. At a time when unemployment in the construction industry is well above 14%, we need programs that stimulate construction activity, and we all know the historic credit does that quite well. (Stats from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

We will be watching this very closely, obviously, and will keep you in the loop.