Area Still Hopeful, But State Rep Says Aerotropolis is "Dying A Slow Death"

Members of the Missouri State Senate will be back at work Monday, with the clock ticking down on time left in the special session called by Governor Nixon. Lawmakers have until November 6 before the session expires, by statute.

Monday afternoon, the State Senate will gavel into session to consider the fate of Missouri's Presidential primary. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, once a House bill to move the primary to March stalled in the Senate, the state GOP decided to move to a caucus system to protect Missouri's number of delegates.

Senators will also vote on whether to send economic development legislation, which includes the so-called to a conference committee to resolve differences with the House version passed on October 6. State Rep. Jill Schupp (D-Creve Coeur) tweeted at the time, "Passed a bill today...the good, the bad. we'll see if the senate is willing to deal with our mess and later, "Passed a bill today...the good, the bad and more. We'll see if the senate will even consider it."

Friday, Schupp told Patch that the Aerotropolis legislation is "dying a slow death."

Still local school and municipal lawmakers are looking to China Hub to boost the economy in North St. Louis County. At a recent Board of Education meeting, the was discussed. School board member Desiree Whitlock asked the district's finance department about China Hub and how the district would benefit from taxation on it.

The could stand to also gain as it is one of the closest neighbors to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport where the hub would be based. According to David Cox, the City of Hazelwood's economic development director it would not be an immediate impact.

“We’ve got Hazelwood Logistics Center, Aviator Business Park and lot of warehouse storage space,” he said in a prior interview. “A lot of initial processing would be done on the airport site, but there is limited space there. That’s where we would come in with cargo unloading and warehouse storage in Hazelwood.”

State Senator Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) will not be in Jefferson City for Monday's vote. Reached by phone while on vacation out of state, Cunningham said the only major issue of separation between the House and Senate is that of sunset provisions on tax credit programs.

Cunningham said she supports putting sunsets on tax credit programs which aren't getting high enough returns on investment. Last week in a GOP Senate Caucus meeting, she proposed a 2 year probationary period for economic development tax credit programs which don't generate more than 70 cents on the dollar. If those programs couldn't generate more than 70 cents after a 2 year period, they would sunset immediately, under her proposal.