Michael Allen, the blogger whose research into the once-mysterious Blairmont land acquisitions led to all the attention the Land Assemblage Tax Credit is getting today, testified yesterday in Jefferson City on ways to make the legislation better.

State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed told the committee yesterday that her area didn’t want the $95 million Land Assemblage Tax Credit.

“Until we understand it and until we know better what’s going to take place in the areas we represent, we don’t want it,” said Nasheed.

She said developer Paul McKee has been “disrespectful to the local elected officials” and she thinks it is “pathetic” for anyone to support the tax credit without first seeing his plan for the area.

At yesterday’s committee hearing on Governor Matt Blunt’s economic development package, which includes the controversial Land Assemblage Tax Credit, State Rep. Rodney Hubbard* offered an amendment to require any redevelopment plan to be approved by the the Board of Aldermen. The committee passed the amendment 11-0.

Hubbard also offered an amendment to shrink the amount of land a developer needed to qualify for the credit from the current 50 acres down to just two. Committee Chair Ron Richard (R-Joplin) said he felt that amounted to “gutting the bill” and recommended the committee members vote against it, which they did.

Hubbard also attempted to add language that would require three public meetings be held before any redevelopment plan is approved. Committee members said they felt the local control amendment put in the hands of the Board of Aldermen the power to conduct as many meetings as they choose before they approve the redevelopment plan.

*Hubbard is a client of A.D. French & Associates

St. Louis Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe, a longtime critic of the city’s Land Reutilization Authority’s land-banking policy, testified today in Jefferson City that the proposed Land Assemblage Tax Credit would be good for north St. Louis — but only if it was amended to require any redevelopment plan eligible for the credit to first be approved by the Board of Aldermen.

Troupe said St. Louis has suffered over the years from “corrupt and backwards and sometimes outright stupid” policies. He pointed to the twenty-year-old LRA policy of acquiring thousands of properties, mostly in north St. Louis, and routinely denying independent rehabbers a chance to purchase one or two properties at a time.

Troupe, who has blamed the LRA for much of the blight on the northside, said this policy has left many neighborhoods devastated and vulnerable to red-lining and declining property values.

With the protection of local control, Troupe said he supports this tax credit bill and sees it as promising for much needed investment.

Following Troupe’s testimony, State Rep. Rodney Hubbard* offered an amendment, which was approved by the committee, to require any redevelopment plan to be approved by the the Board of Aldermen.

*Hubbard is a client of A.D. French & Associates

Supporters of the proposed Land Assemblage Tax Credit bill testified today before the House Special Committee on Job Creation and Economic Development in support of the legislation.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s chief of staff Jeff Rainford; Rev. James Morris; John Cross of SEIU Local 2000; and Robert Tillman, a 19th Ward homeowner, were among those who said the proposal will allow for much needed and much delayed development to begin in north St. Louis.

The Missouri House and Senate both came back into session today to revisit the economic development package (HB 327) previously vetoed by Governor Matt Blunt. Of course, included in that package is the controversial Land Assemblage Tax Credit.

There was not much action today. In fact, the House was only in session long enough to first and second read the bill and refer it to committee for a hearing.

That hearing is scheduled for noon tomorrow. Check PubDef.net tomorrow afternoon for video from the hearing.

PUB DEF SPECIAL REPORT

Poisoning the well of good faith negotiations in trying to reach a compromise on the controversial Land Assemblage Tax Credit is the amount of anger and raw emotion people have towards its chief architect, Paul McKee, and the amount of damage he has done to a community already devastated by decades of neglect.

“Paul McKee creates blight,” said 5th Ward Alderman April Ford Griffin last week as she showed legislators and her aldermanic colleagues long-standing brick buildings which now sit with entire walls spilled out onto its once green yard.

She told the other lawmakers about reports from neighbors of mysterious men ramming Bobcats into the sides of buildings, which only months before housed families, causing the walls to fall onto themselves and leaving the building open to the elements, looters and drug dealers.

Some scenes in the video you are about to watch look like they were filmed in the most devastated areas of New Orleans. Mr. McKee and others will point to these images and say this is why he needs this tax credit. What is important for Missouri’s state legislators to understand, say city aldermen, is that just 18-24 months ago, many of these buildings were homes with families living in them. Then Blairmont came.

This is where the anger comes from.

But after all the anger surrounding this one man, what St. Louis’ Legislative delegation must remember is that this problem is larger than one man, even this man who in the short-term has made the situation worse.

There are 100 million dollars in much needed tax credits on the table. The challenge over the next few days is how to make them available to people who do care about these communities, organizations and developers who are respectful of the people of these areas and sensitive to their desires about the future of their community, and not to reward a man who has for so long, so blatantly disregarded the men, women and children forced to live next to his piles of bricks and self-made blight.

The devil will be in the details.

Click here to download this video (.mov). Here’s the YouTube link.

Click here to watch our earlier Blairmont special report.

Bloggers, feel free to post these videos on your sites.

When it comes to the proposed Land Assemblage Tax Credit, the devil is in the details.

A story in today’s Post-Dispatch says leaders in the Republican-controlled legislature are confident that a scaled-back version of Governor Matt Blunt’s economic development package will pass during the special session which begins tomorrow. Included in that package is the controversial tax credit which as originally passed seemed to include parameters that only one known developer could qualify for.

From Virginia Young’s story:

Developer Paul J. McKee Jr. has purchased more than 500 tracts of land in and around Old North St. Louis, land that could be used in part to qualify for such tax credits.

Blunt says the new bill would broaden the program so that more developers could participate. Under the latest draft, the subsidy could go to those who buy at least 50 acres for projects covering at least 75 acres in low-income areas. Up to $10 million in credits could be issued each year until the total hit $95 million.

The sponsor, Sen. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, Mo., said he believed the new proposal satisfies concerns that the program was designed for one man. Griesheimer added that McKee “ought to be nominated for sainthood” for investing in decaying areas of St. Louis.

Senator Griesheimer may feel differently about McKee’s qualifications for sainthood after he watches PubDef’s latest video on the St. Charles developer’s northside activities. Check back Monday for that special report.

Lowering the requirement of the acreage needed in order for a developer to qualify for the tax credit is a step in the right direction, said the original Blairmont watchdog, Michael Allen. But at 50 acres, the bill would still make McKee the only likely applicant in Old North St. Louis.

“What we need is a threshold much lower than that, closer to half that number,” said Allen. “At 20 to 25 acres, other developers and even established neighborhood organizations could apply and receive these tax credits.”

PubDef will be reporting this week from the special session in Jefferson City, following the negotiations as legislators, lobbyists and residents try to reach a compromise.

According to the Post, the Legislature’s schedule calls for a House committee to hold a hearing on the bill on Tuesday. The full House will vote Thursday. A Senate hearing will take place Aug. 27 and the full Senate could vote Aug. 29.

A group of St. Louis legislators, including State Reps Jamilah Nasheed, Jeanette Mott Oxford and Rodney Hubbard*, State Senator Harry Kennedy, Aldermen April Ford Griffin, Dionne Flowers, Freeman Bosley, Sr., Jeffrey Boyd, Marlene Davis, Terry Kennedy, Frank Williamson, Bill Waterhouse, and Aldermanic President Lewis Reed*, today called for the controversial Land Assemblage Tax Credit to be amended during next week’s special session.

*Clients of A.D. French & Associates

At a press conference this morning at the corner of Montgomery Street and N. Garrison Avenue in north St. Louis, 5th Ward Alderman April Ford-Griffin voiced her concerns about the proposed Land Assemblage Tax Credit that is once again being discussed by state legislators.

Griffin echoed concerns that the bill needs to be amended to allow others beside controversial St. Charles developer Paul McKee to benefit. According to Griffin, McKee has intentionally allowed his 500-plus properties in north St. Louis to deteriorate — and in some cases, workers have intentionally knocked down walls and destroyed foundations — in order to drop the property values and buy more land.

Griffin said the state legislature should not reward McKee for his poor stewardship of these properties.

Griffin also accused Mayor Francis Slay’s office someone in city government of sending city workers to McKee’s sites yesterday to clean up his lots ahead of today’s press event.

Several other aldermen, including Charles Troupe, Dionne Flowers, Freeman Bosley, Sr., Marlene Davis, Jeffrey Boyd, Terry Kennedy, Frank Williamson, Bill Waterhouse, and Board President Lewis Reed attended the event. State Reps Jeanette Mott Oxford and Jamilah Nasheed, who both helped organize the event, were joined by colleagues Rodney Hubbard, Cynthia Davis (R-O’Fallon) and Ron Casey (D-Crystal City). License Collector and former 19th Ward alderman Mike McMillan also attended.