JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A bill removing tax incentives for businesses relocating to Missouri from a few designated counties in Kansas was passed through the General Assembly this week.
Championed by Sen. Mike Cierpiot, SB 182 removes certain tax credits for businesses that move from specific counties in Kansas to other “border counties” in Missouri. In Kansas, the counties impacted are: Johnson, Miami, and Wyandotte. In Missouri, those counties are: Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte.
“SB 182 will save Missouri taxpayers in the coming years, saving economic and development dollars for investment for situations that grow Missouri’s economy,” Cierpiot told The Missouri Times.
The bill was third read and passed unanimously Thursday in the Senate after a land banks amendment added in the lower chamber had been removed. Cierpiot said there were questions about whether that amendment was relevant to the underlying bill.
The House then truly agreed and finally passed it Friday in a 143-3 vote. It now heads to the governor’s desk.
“I strongly believe in this legislation in which we have protected both Kansas and Missouri taxpayers from businesses taking advantage of our incentive programs. This will save Missouri over $50 million a year,” Rep. Jack Bondon, co-chair of the Kansas City Caucus, said in a statement to The Misssouri Times.
“We accomplished a great deal for the people of the Kansas City metro area, and I am proud of the work we have done,” added Bondon.
Cierpiot previously said the bill was needed because some companies along the Missouri-Kansas border “take advantage” of the economic policies of both states and move across state lines “without bringing the benefit of most companies when they come in here or grow here.”
“We have a lot of economic development policies and incentives trying to get companies to either grow here or move here,” he said.
Of the businesses moving across state lines, Cierpiot said: “So it’s not really generating new jobs per se and what goes with that normally like buying homes and all the economic activity that accompanies that.”
Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.
