The provision providing for any municipality in a county under the authority of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments to create a TIF commission in the same manner as the creation of a TIF commission in St. Louis County is repealed. The provision requiring any city, town, or village under the authority of such Council to obtain permission of the county TIF commission is also repealed.

Beginning August 28, 2008, any city, town, or village in St. Louis County, St. Charles County, or Jefferson County shall, prior to adoption of an ordinance approving the designation of a redevelopment area or approving a redevelopment plan/project, create a commission of twelve people. Six members shall be appointed by the county executive or presiding commissioner, three members shall be appointed by the cities, towns, and villages in the county which have TIF districts, two members shall be appointed by the school boards in the county, and one member shall represent all other taxing districts in the proposed redevelopment area and be appointed in a manner agreed upon by all such districts. A city, town, or village that creates such a commission must send notice to the county executive or presiding commissioner, school districts, and other taxing districts.

Any commission created by a city, town, or village in such counties shall, within 15 days of receiving a redevelopment plan and a request by the applicable city, town, or village, fix a time and place for the required public hearing. The hearing shall be held no later than 75 days from the commission receiving the plan and request. The commission shall vote and make recommendations to the governing body of the city, town, or village requesting the hearing within 30 days after the hearing. If the commission fails to vote within 30 days, the plan will be deemed rejected.

Section 99.825, RSMo, is currently doubly-enacted, so one version of the section is repealed. Any public hearing of a commission created by a city, town, or village in St. Louis County, St. Charles County, or Jefferson County shall not be continued for more than thirty days unless requested by the chief elected official of the municipality creating the commission and approved by the majority of the commission.

Changes may be made to the redevelopment plan without further hearing provided there is no enlargement of the boundaries of the redevelopment area, substantial effect on the general land use, change in the nature of the redevelopment project, or increase in the total redevelopment costs approved by the commission to be paid by TIF, excluding interest and finance costs, by more than 10% and notice of such changes is given to each affected taxing district by mail and publication in the newspaper.

After adoption of an ordinance approving a redevelopment plan, alterations to the plan may be made provided they do not: enlarge the boundaries of the redevelopment area, substantially affect the general land use, change the nature of the redevelopment project, or increase the total redevelopment costs approved by the commission to be paid by TIF, excluding interest and finance costs, by more than 10% may be adopted.

Currently, some demolition activities associated with Brownfield redevelopment are separate from remediation activities. The act specifies that all demolition activities are part of remediation and allows remediation tax credits to include up to one hundred percent of demolition costs that are not directly part of the remediation, but which are necessary to accomplish the planned use of the facility. Demolition may occur on adjacent property that independently qualifies as abandoned or underutilized and is located in a municipality with fewer than 20,000 residents.

The act allows community improvement districts (CID) to exist in special business districts within the City of St. Louis. Currently, any CID in St. Louis which is also in a special business district cannot levy a CID sales tax unless special assessments imposed on real property or businesses within the special business district are repealed. Sales by public utilities and providers of communications, cable, or video services will be exempt from the CID sales tax.

The director of the Department of Economic Development is authorized to issue letter rulings regarding the New Markets Tax Credit Program. The letter rulings are binding in a court of law and must be issued within sixty days of a request. The department can refuse to issue the letter ruling for good cause, but must explain the reason for refusal. Letter rulings are closed to the public, however information can be released as long as anything which would identify the applicant or is otherwise protected is redacted.

Any applicant for state tax credits who purposely and directly employs unauthorized aliens must forfeit any tax credits issued to such applicant which have not been redeemed, and any tax credits redeemed by such applicant will be recaptured for the period of time in which the applicant employed unauthorized aliens.

All members of the General Assembly and state-wide elected public officials are required to file a financial interest statement with the Missouri Ethics Commission disclosing any state tax credits claimed on the most recent state income tax return of the member, the member's spouse, or the member's dependent child. The Department of Revenue must make information regarding state tax credits claimed by a member of the General Assembly or state-wide elected public official available to the public.

As of June 30, 2013, no new tax credits may be authorized under the wood energy tax credit program. The act repeals the manufacturing and recycling flexible cellulose casing tax credit and the sponsorship and mentoring tax credit.

All state agencies charged with administering state tax credits must make available for public inspection the name of each tax credit recipient and the amount of tax credits issued to each such recipient.

The act bars businesses from being disqualified from receiving state authorized tax credits, abatements, exemptions, or loans on a conflict of interest basis due to a relationship to an statewide elected public official or member of the general assembly when the person of relation holds less than a 2% interest the entity standing to benefit from the credit, abatement, exemption or loan.

The act specifies that the true value in money for property tax assessment purposes of any possessory interest in real property located on or within the ultimate airport boundary shown by a federal airport layout plan of the Kansas City International Airport will be the true value in money of the possessory interest in the real property less the total costs paid toward any new construction or improvements completed on the property after January 1, 2008, if included in the possessory interest, unless paid by the political subdivision, regardless of the year the costs were incurred.

An exemption from state and local sales and use tax is created for all tangible personal property included on the United States munitions list which is sold to or purchased by a foreign government for a governmental purpose. Currently, this exemption is granted by the Department of Revenue through a letter ruling.

Currently, both the Agricultural Product Utilization Contributor tax credit and the New Generation Cooperative Incentive tax credit programs are scheduled to expire on December 31, 2010. The act extends the expiration date until December 31, 2016.

For purposes of Urban Redevelopment Corporations Law, the makes any earnings limitation, imposed on any purchaser that is not an urban redevelopment corporation or life insurance company operating as an urban redevelopment corporation, void.

The act creates the entrepreneurial development council within the department of economic development. The council will consist of seven board members from business and legal experts in the area of intellectual property. The council must impose a registration fee, sufficient to cover costs of the program, for entrepreneurs wishing to receive council benefits. The act creates the entrepreneurial development and intellectual property right protection fund to receive appropriations, grants, gifts and bequests. The council has the authority to allocate moneys from the fund to provide financial assistance for legal actions instituted by registered entrepreneurs alleging infringement of their intellectual property rights. The council may also allocate moneys from the fund to registered entrepreneurs for financial assistance for the development, manufacture and advertising of new products.

Currently, the Department of Economic Development cannot issue more than forty million dollars in tax credits annually under the Quality Jobs Act. The act increases the cap on the annual issuance of tax credits to sixty million dollars. Under current law, tax credits for job retention projects are only authorized through August 30, 2007. The act extends the authorization to August 30, 2013. Under the Quality Jobs Act, a project facility may include separate buildings if they are located within one mile of each other. The act allows a project facility to include separate buildings within the same county. Companies which lease or own facilities that produce electricity derived from qualified renewable energy sources, or which produce fuel for the generation of electricity from qualified renewable energy sources are allowed to participate in the quality jobs program as a technology business project if all other requirements of the program are met. Qualified renewable energy sources include open-looped biomass, close-looped biomass, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower but not ethanol distillation or production or biodiesel production.

JASON ZAMKUS