House will start work on economic development next week

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri House Speaker Steven Tilley said he wanted his chamber to take a good long look at the economic development plan the Senate sent the House on Wednesday.

He figures one week should be long enough.

Work on the centerpiece economic development bill will highlight week number three of the special legislative session, but it's likely to not be the last week. Tilley, R-Perryville, was critical of the legislation that came from the other side of the building.

"Clearly it wasn't the deal that myself and (Senate President Pro Tem) Rob Mayer agreed to," Tilley said during a news conference Wednesday.

Tilley supported warehouse tax credits for the "Aerotropolis" zone near Lambert St. Louis International Airport. He also does not agree with the $70 million caps placed on historic preservation and low-income housing tax credit programs. And he said his leadership team does not like the Compete Missouri plan included in the economic development legislation, saying it gives too much discretion about economic incentives to the Department of Economic Development.  

"We'll keep working with the Senate to get something accomplished, but no, Senate Bill 8 is not something we can just take up and pass," Tilley said.

The House's economic development committee will take up the bill at a hearing late Monday afternoon. That's where changes to the Senate bill will be aired for the first time. After that, it's likely off to the House floor for debate Thursday. If the bill survives a floor vote, it will move back to the Senate. The Senate likely will reject the House changes, and the following week will see House and Senate conferees meeting to hammer out a final deal.

In the meantime, the House will concern itself with Sen. Jane Cunningham's bill that changes the social media portion of the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act. The so-called Facebook Fix, which leaves the development of policy for electronic communication up to individual school districts, sailed through the Senate without a single no vote.

The bill will be heard in the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, where it is likely to sail through as well.

The bill is expected to clear the House without much debate, but what happens to the bill after that is anybody's guess. Gov. Jay Nixon has most recently said the bill is beyond the scope of the special session he called. In his call, Nixon instructed legislators only to strip the electronic communication portion of Cunningham's bill out of the legislation. He did not instruct the legislature to replace it.

The Senate will come back into session Wednesday. Before they do, the Senate Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight committee will meet. The committee will take up the St. Louis Police local control bill, and the House bill that sets up a state tax amnesty period.

The committee was supposed to hear the police bill last week, but St. Louis Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal objected. She wanted the committee to await the outcome of a leadership election within the police officers' association.

"No one has listened to the rank and file officers on this home rule bill. If the leadership is voted out, it's a sign the rank and file is not happy with this deal," said Chappelle-Nadal.