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RCGAction
The
Monthly Newsletter and Planning Calendar of the St. Louis RCGA
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Missouri
Legislative Session Concludes: Home Rule / Plant and Life Science
Funding are Bright Spots
Despite what was a generally disappointing Missouri Legislative
Session for the second straight year, several key RCGA-supported
measures with implications for the St. Louis region were passed
as the Session concluded in mid May.
“While we are clearly disappointed at the failure to move forward
in dealing with critical statewide transportation needs, enabling
legislation for a new Ballpark and Ballpark Village, and urgently-needed
economic development legislation, the region can take some consolation
in the fact that several other pieces of individual legislation
important to the region did pass in this Session,” says Jim Farrell,
senior vice president Public Policy and Government Affairs. RCGA-supported
legislation that did receive favorable action included:
- Home
Rule legislation that will go to a statewide vote of the
people in November 2002. This issue has been identified
as a key element in the revitalization of the region’s
center city.
- First-year
funding of nearly $22 million for plant and life sciences
research, as part of the budget bill specifically dealing
with allocation of the state Tobacco Settlement. This
effort has been a product of a strong statewide coalition,
which has included the RCGA and Civic Progress; the Kansas
City Civic Council; and the Missouri Hospital Association.
- The
RCGA worked with Mayor Francis Slay for passage of Brownfield
Redevelopment legislation that makes several reforms to
the Brownfield Redevelopment program by allowing demolition
costs to be eligible for tax credits. Additionally, this
legislation permits property that is adjacent to a Brownfield
site to be part of a Brownfield program if it is part
of a redevelopment plan. This provides a valuable tool
that will encourage private investment for the rehabilitation
of abandoned property.
- Contiguous
Property Fund legislation that helps older areas assemble
land for major redevelopment—especially in the City of
St. Louis. This legislation was lobbied by the RCGA at
the request of the Inner City Competitive Alliance (ICCA)
and St. Louis 2004.
- Passage
of Emissions Banking and Trading legislation that will
greatly reduce regulatory barriers to new growth in the
industrial sector. This law will enable companies contemplating
either expansion or new construction of facilities that
generate added levels of air pollution to mitigate that
increase in an economical and environmentally prudent
fashion—actually reducing the aggregate level of pollution
permitted in the region.
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