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(Special to the Independent News)
More than 200 community, civic and business leaders attended the Legislative Reception for North County, Feb. 7 at SSM DePaul Health Center. This collaborative event was hosted by North County Incorporated, the Florissant Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Maryland Heights Chamber of Commerce, the Northwest Chamber of Commerce and the North County Chamber of Commerce.

Are leaders got a chance to hear from state legislators about matters affecting North County and the State of Missouri. Program moderator, Ann Brand from St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, presented the 2008 North County legislative priorities on economic development, education, healthcare, transportation and general issues.

State legislators in attendance were: Senator Rita Days, Senator Timothy Green, State Rep. Bruce Darrough, Representative Albert Liese, Representative Michael Spreng, Representative Gina Walsh, Representative Juanita Walton, Representative Jake Zimmerman and Representative Clint Zweifel.

Legislative Agenda Issues

The 2008 Legislative Agenda for Economic Development, as presented jointly by the four area chambers and NCI include:

Quality Jobs and Enhanced Enterprise Zones. They thanked the legislators for their diligence in the enhancement of the Quality Jobs and EEZ programs; we appreciate their efforts to expand these economic development growth tools for the State.

Economic Development Tax Credits. They support expansion of proven tax credits that leverage private investment and stimulate employment and economic growth for our region.

Job Training: They support restoration and enhancement of state appropriations for job training and exploration of avenues to make programs more accessible.

Encourage Local Economic Development Activity. They encourage the State to support local Economic Development Organizations, which actively participate in economic development needs best served at the local level.

Business Retention and Expansion. They lend support to potential DED retention enhancement and the addition of a commission that would decide when retention incentives should be offered to a particular Missouri company.

Entrepreneurial and Small Businesses. They encourage policies that further stimulate the growth of these critical sectors and encourage the State to work with organizations that support economic development initiatives in these areas.

Redevelopment. We support initiatives to spur redevelopment efforts in economically distressed areas, such as increasing direct funding and tax credits for Brownfield cleanup and enact meaningful liability reform for Brownfield sites to encourage their turnover to a productive use.

Edcation Funding They support appropriations for public schools sufficient to fully fund the Foundation Formula and categorical programs, and support reducing the number of years to phase in the full funding of the new Formula. They support equitable funding of educational facilities. They oppose voucher, tuition tax credits or any other program.

Higher Education. They support an increase in higher education core operating budgets of at least 12 percent in 2010, with an increase of four percent in 2008. St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley and the University of Missouri-St. Louis play a vital role in the vitality and economic development of our area. They support increased funding for UMSL to correct system-wide equity issues. They also support capital funding for maintenance and repair of buildings and equipment for St. Louis Community Colleges.

Healthcare support for Medicaid and MoHealthNet . This public/private partnership must maintain the safety net for those who cannot afford health insurance, such as those with pre-existing conditions who are ineligible for health insurance, the disabled and mental health parity. They support adequate state funding for MoHealthNet to enhance the capture of available federal matching funds.

Certificate of Need. They oppose repealing the Certificate of Need for new hospitals, which encourages niche providers who only serve a limited segment of the medical market focusing on the most profitable services, such as uncomplicated outpatient surgeries for individuals with insurance, medical imaging, etc.

Transportation. They support fair and equitable distribution of transportation funding and encourage the consideration of economic development and job creation impact when funding future projects. They urge legislators and State agencies to continue the emphasis on maintenance of existing infrastructure

They support the State exploring ways to increase funding for Missouri’s transportation system and advance a sustainable plan to increase transportation projects in the St. Louis region. They support various forms of user fees be considered as one.

General Issues. They oppose TABOR or a “Taxpayers Bill of Rights” due to the harm it would cause to our schools, shifting of burden to local level and loss of federal money and decrease in business growth, which may occur if legislation such as this is enacted.

They condemn predatory lending practices, which have created an increase in home foreclosures. These practices include loans at excessive rates of interest; loans that are difficult to repay because of added fees, balloon pay-off requirements and ‘flipping’ refinancing practices, which strip homeowners of their equity; payday loans’, misleading sales practices or other predatory practices.

They support providing tax relief based upon a combination of income and tax liability. They support the State simplify the Missouri Property Tax Credit (Circuit Breaker) program that offers relief to low to moderate-income seniors.
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