ST. LOUIS – Rep. Anne Zerr, R-St. Charles, is filing a bill which seeks to prevent sports franchise owners and their subsidiaries from utilizing government incentives again in the event a publicly funded facility is left.
Zerr discussed the filing on the Mark Reardon Show on KMOX Thursday, saying that those who abuse government incentives, whether it be tax increment financing, tax credits, or bonding, should not be able to utilize state programs again when debt is left to the state.
“[The Rams are] going to leave us. What I can do is do something going forward and make sure the State of Missouri isn’t left on the hook. In this case, we’re stuck now,” Zerr told Reardon. “The State of Missouri is stuck with between $10-20 million a year until 2021.”
Zerr said that state incentives need be beneficial to the state.
“[The dome debt is] what concerned me. I’ve been Economic Development Chair in the House for the previous 4 years and now I’m the chair of the Select Committee on Commerce. Since I’ve been there, we’ve been working on ways to make tax incentives more sustainable to the state, to make sure that there is at least an even return on investments. Tax incentives must pay off for the state and do the things that companies say they’re going to do with them.”
So, Zerr has filed a bill, hoping to protect the state from any debt incurred by abandoned stadiums, such as the Edward Jones Dome.
“What [the bill] would do would be to make franchise owners of facilities with public financing liable for any and all debt if the owner leaves,” Zerr said. “They would banned from ever getting Missouri tax incentives ever again. They would be banned and their subsidiaries would be prohibited from receiving any tax increment financing, from tax abatement, any kind of tax credits, ever. …It isn’t just the Rams, but the reverberating economic benefits… If there are tax incentives that you are going to get, you have to adhere to a contract up front.”
The bill’s text specifies professional sports franchises and would enact a state incentive prohibition.
“Any owner of a professional sports franchise whose franchise used or played in a publicly funded stadium or facility who moves, leaves, or abandons such stadium or facility so that it is no longer used by or played in by such franchise shall permanently and forever be prohibited from receiving any government incentives in this state unless all public expenses associated with such publicly funded stadium or facility are satisfied or repaid,” reads the bill. “This prohibition shall apply to the owner and any of the owner’s subsidiaries.”
Rachael Herndon was the editor at The Missouri Times and also produced This Week in Missouri Politics, published Missouri Times Magazine, and co-hosted the #MoLeg podcast. She joined The Missouri Times in 2014, returning to political reporting after working as a campaign and legislative staffer.
Rachael studied at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She lives in Jefferson City with her husband, Brandon, and their two children.
