Kinder Morgan offers millions to rural districts

By Mark Bliss ~ Southeast Missourian

JACKSON, Mo. -- Developers of a proposed power plant in southwest Cape Girardeau County have promised millions of dollars in payments to a small school district and a rural fire district if the plant is built.

The promises were made in closed-door meetings this week involving the Cape Girardeau County Commission that a lawyer says violated Missouri's open meetings law.

Commissioners insisted Thursday that they did nothing wrong because the two meetings earlier this week were called by officials with Kinder Morgan Power Co. But Jean Maneke, a Kansas City-based attorney for the Missouri Press Association, said the meetings should have been open because they involved discussion of public business.

At stake is $13.5 million in promised payments to tax-funded entities over the next 15 years, including $9.42 million for the Delta School District and $780,000 to the small Whitewater Fire District. The rest would go to entities such as the county health department, senior centers and others with countywide levies. County and Kinder Morgan officials said those payments still are being worked out.

The county government itself wouldn't get a dime, commissioners said. But county officials are looking to get some money to help finance the paving of the gravel section of Nash Road that extends from an industrial area near the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport west to Highway 77. That funding also is still being worked out, officials said.

Still needs permit

But it's all just empty promises unless the state grants a construction permit for the plant that Kinder Morgan wants to build just west of Route U between Crump and Whitewater in the rural hills of southwest Cape Girardeau County.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has refused to issue a permit without design changes to reduce smog-producing emissions.

Kinder Morgan has appealed to the Missouri Air Conservation Commission. The appeal is still pending five months after the DNR officially rejected plans for the power plant.

John Gibson, site development director for the Colorado-based electric power company, said he hopes to have a written agreement to the county commission within two to three weeks.

Gibson said he wants to have the agreement in place so work can proceed if and when the state grants the construction permit.

Under the agreement, the county would issue bonds to fund construction of the $300 million, 550-megawatt plant. Kinder Morgan would pay off the bonds over 15 years. During that time, the company would make payments to the school district and other entities but wouldn't pay real estate and personal property taxes. At the end of 15 years, the plant would go on the tax rolls.

Private meetings

The commission met Tuesday night at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau with Whitewater Fire District officials, Whitewater area resident Doug Flannery, county Assessor Jerry Reynolds, industrial recruiter Mitch Robinson and two representatives of Kinder Morgan -- Gibson and Cape Girardeau attorney Rick Kuntze.

On Wednesday morning, the commissioners and the company representatives met with Tom Allen, Delta schools superintendent, and several members of the school board in the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce building.

The commission didn't notify the press of either meeting. "We were invited guests," said Gerald Jones, presiding commissioner.

Missouri Press Association attorney Maneke said it doesn't matter who called the meeting if the commissioners participated in the discussion.

"I think once you've got a meeting where they are discussing public business, it is clear you have a violation of the law," she said.

Flannery, who is challenging Jones in the August Republican primary, attended Tuesday's meeting at the invitation of fire district officials. Flannery said Jones passed out sheets of paper showing the projected payments to the first district.

"They did most of the talking," Flannery said of the commission.

Funding windfall

Closed meetings or not, money is the issue to school and fire district officials who currently must cope with a low tax base in an area of the county where few businesses operate other than farms.

Allen said $9.42 million would be a big boost to the rural school district, which currently operates on a $2.3 million budget. The school district has an enrollment of 315 students.

The proposed payments could fund a new elementary school and raises for teachers, Allen said.

The money would be paid to the school's fund-raising foundation so it wouldn't count against the school system in the state-aid formula, Allen said. Under the formula, state aid to the school decreases as local tax revenue increases.

Once the plant is on the tax rolls, the school system could see its annual local tax revenue jump by more than $800,000. But with a drop in state aid under the funding formula, the net increase would be $400,000 or less, Allen said.

As for the Whitewater Fire District, it's finding it hard to fight fires on $30,000 or less a year . The money comes from property taxes.

But that's small support for a volunteer fire department that maintains seven trucks and two stations. It's newest pumper is 38 years old.

The projected infusion of $780,000 in the next 15 years would make a huge difference, fire officials said. The figure includes fire trucks that Kinder Morgan has promised to provide rather than cash for its first-year payment totaling $150,000.

"It would be a great shot in the arm for us," said David Blumenberg, who operates a grocery store in Whitewater and serves as president of the fire district board.

Reynolds, the county assessor, said once the plant goes on the tax rolls it would pay an estimated $55,000 to $75,000 a year in property taxes to the fire district.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123