Jobs program gets boost

JEFFERSON CITY — In a move that mirrors Gov. Matt Blunt’s tax cut recommendations, a Missouri House special committee approved a bill to double the size of tax relief for job-creating businesses Wednesday. But a state senator says the cuts are not enough and will introduce legislation to increase the governor’s proposal even more.

Sen. John Griesheimer, R-Washington and chairman of the Senate Economic Development Committee, presented a bill Wednesday that calls for doubling the tax incentives provided by the Quality Jobs Program to $24 million, but said he would push to raise the cuts to $75 million.

“I think it needs to be more than $24 million,” Griesheimer said. His office said the senator plans to introduce a substitute bill that would raise the tax cuts to $75 million.

The separate House bill that would double the capacity of the Quality Jobs Program tax breaks to $24 million was approved Wednesday by a Special House Committee on Job Creation and Economic Development, setting up a potential conflict with Griesheimer’s proposal.

The Quality Jobs Program was created in 2005 to encourage Missouri businesses to create new jobs by providing tax breaks. The original program, which has been credited by the state’s Economic Development Department for generating a total of 12,000 new jobs in Missouri, caps the benefits at $12 million.

In his State of the State address last month, Blunt asked the legislature to double the program’s tax incentives to $24 million. But with state senators signalling they want larger cuts, Blunt spokeswoman Jessica Robinson said the governor would be willing to consider other options.

Many legislators and business groups argue the program’s success calls for either a dramatic increase of the limit, or eliminating the cap altogether.

Ray McCarty, a business lobbyist, urged the committee on behalf of numerous groups to remove the cap, an idea that committee Vice-Chair Chris Koster, R-Harrisonville, said he supported.

“I would like to see business be able to exist in a frictionless environment for five years, (where) government is completely out of their way,” Koster said. But he tempered his position by raising the possibility of requiring businesses under the program to pay for 75 percent of their employees’ health insurance premiums. Currently, companies that receive breaks must pay for 50 percent of the premiums, as well as create new jobs and pay their employees at least the average wage in their county.

Testimony to the committee was overwhelmingly supportive of increasing the tax cuts, but eliminating the cap completely was not immediately embraced by all committee members.

“I just heard about it today, about lifting the cap. I don’t know if I like it, or if I don’t like it,” said Sen. Harry Kennedy, D-St. Louis. “I do know that I like some kind of review so people don’t go crazy and our friends from the newspapers don’t then want to write that we’re being irresponsible.”