The day after he won election, then-governor-elect Jay Nixon called in Democrats and Republicans to begin addressing Missouri’s biggest needs. Out of that brainstorming session came the foundation for a jobs bill, which Nixon signed during a ceremony at Hannibal City Hall Thursday morning.
Nixon identified the bill’s three centerpieces as being:
• Increases to the annual cap on the Quality Jobs Program from $60 million to $80 million and removes the annual per-company cap for jobs in the high-impact and technology categories.
• Increases the annual cap on the Missouri Business Use Incentives for Large-Scale Development (BUILD) from $15 million to $25 million and removes the provision requiring the company to seek a competitive bid from another state.
• Provides funding for pre-employment training activities under the state’s Job-Training Program.
“We got excited as we went through the process with the job retraining issue because as we saw the unemployment rise and folks sitting at home getting unemployment, we saw what a waste of human capital that was. We worked with members of the House and Senate to expand that part of it,” Nixon told the capacity gathering inside council chambers.
Also cited as a key part of the bill by Nixon is its elimination of a franchise tax for more than 16,500 businesses in the state.
“We wanted to send a clear signal that tax relief is something we’re all interested in - Democrats, Republicans. Folks in Jefferson City understand the burden of taxes. That’s why we’re so proud that the target tax cut for small businesses became a part of this measure,” said Nixon. “It also sends a clear signal that in ways we can afford it, we want to make sure we keep up the basic safety net services the state must provide, but we’re also interested in putting money in people’s pockets so that they can move forward.”
Nixon believes that the bill will help create jobs that have previously been lost.
“As governor a lot of your work is trying to recruit folks to expand businesses or get businesses to come to your state,” he said. “Before this measure passed we lost some deals I think we could have gotten and we lost those because of some of the challenges that have been addressed right here.”
While signing the bill Thursday, Nixon suggested that additional revisions are still likely.
“It made it through the House pretty quickly. It got to the Senate and there were some legitimate discussions,” he said. “I think will continue when we get back next year. There are folks that want to make sure that if we expend any sort of tax incentives that we do in the most cost effective and efficient way, and that we divide those across the state.”
