Cardinals cut money request for new ballpark

Like most folks from Southeast Missouri, Bill Burch of Sikeston, Mo., didn't care much for a proposal the St. Louis Cardinals pushed earlier this year for a taxpayer-financed downtown ballpark.

Now that the team is pursuing a plan under which private investors would foot most of the bill, Burch, a member of the Missouri Development Finance Board, had no problem voting to authorize $29.45 million in state tax credits for the project.

"Before it was a straight state subsidy," Burch said. "The state is now getting a much better deal. To me it is a win-win situation."

Tuesday's unanimous decision by the board, which provides assistance for private projects deemed to generate economic development in Missouri, put in place the biggest piece of the puzzle the Cardinals are seeking from the state.

The Missouri State Highways and Transportation Commission will be asked to provide the second state component -- $12 million to relocate an access ramp to Interstate 64. The commission will consider that request Dec. 6.

MoDOT sets aside $15 million a year to address emerging economic development needs, and this would qualify, said Jim Coleman, a Department of Transportation spokesman.

The city of St. Louis has agreed to abate its 5 percent amusement tax on Cardinals tickets to help the deal go forward. The St. Louis County Council will be asked to provide $45 million from an existing tax on hotel stays. The team would provide $50 million and secure private financing to pay for the rest of the $325 million ballpark.

The total state contribution of under $42 million is far less than the $210 million subsidy the team sought from the General Assembly last spring. Aside from Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, who sponsored that legislation, most Southeast Missouri lawmakers were hostile to the proposal, which narrowly passed in the Senate before dying in the House of Representatives without a vote.

One of those legislators, state Rep. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, said he hasn't formed an opinion on the current proposal. However, he noted assistance for infrastructure and economic development in the past has been given to other businesses looking to move into the state or improve and expand existing facilities.

State Rep. Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, said the Cardinals are now doing what they should have done all along -- build the ballpark with private money and local tax dollars with a little help from the state for infrastructure.

"It is the logical thing to do," Mayer said. "You can't ask people in Southeast Missouri and rural Missouri to fund that large a project."

While opposed to the massive state subsidy the team originally sought, Mayer said state residents outside St. Louis likely wouldn't see a problem with a smaller-scale economic development investment that the state would provide any other business.

Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said he wasn't sure the current plan would be more palatable than his legislation was to his constituents. But he was pleased the team found an alternative other than moving to Illinois, which Cardinals officials had considered after Kinder's bill failed. Kinder wrote to the finance board urging it to approve the tax credits.

"My efforts all along were directed toward keeping the Cardinals in St. Louis," Kinder said. "I'm delighted to see it now appears possible to do that."

After 29 years, the $29.45 million in tax credits would either be repaid to the state or the state would own a share of equity in the ballpark.

Department of Economic Development director Joe Driskill said a study by his department shows the state would recoup its ballpark investment plus an additional $12 million in new revenue over the life of the deal.

"If we believe in keeping businesses in our state and generating jobs for our people and new tax dollars for our state, this is something we should be interested in," said Driskill, a former state representative from Poplar Bluff, Mo.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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