Nixon Calls for End to Border War, “Enough” November 12, 2013

Gov Jay Nixon (file photo)

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called for an end to the economic ‘Border War’ between Kansas and Missouri.

That’s the practice of both states using tax incentives to lure businesses from one side of the state line to the other.

Nixon used a speech at the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce to say the economic development tools of both states have been “abused” in the Border War’, “without creating a single new job in the region”.

Nixon called the problem, “unique to this region”. He says both Missourians and Kansas have a responsibility to fix the flaw in the economic development says and stop treating a job that is shifting from one side of the state line in the metro to another as a new job.

“The competition with the highest stakes…the one we can’t lose…isn’t between Kansas or Missouri, or between Jackson County and Johnson County. It’s with Brazil and Russia; South Korea, Germany and India”

In addition to calling for an end to the Border War, Nixon says he and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback should work with their legislatures to end the business poaching for good.

Governor Brownback issued a statement after Nixon’s speech saying “it was good hear” Nixon’s comments.

Nixon also says local officials should follow the same lead, stop using local resources to lure companies from one side of the border to the other.

Nixon says he will also offer “a number of specific concrete ways in which our states can work together” to promote the entire Kansas City region.

In Brownback’s statement, he says the state is ‘actively working with our mayors and civic leaders to build a consensus that is fair and equitable,” allowing both states to grow.

Brownback’s statement also noted, “In the past year, all the net job growth in the KC metro area has occurred on the Kansas side.
Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones is not impressed with Nixon’s plan.
In a statement Jones says Republicans will continue to work on economic development and Border War issues.
Jones says the Governor want to do it all. He says that won’t happen. “Governor Nixon wants the legislature to cede more authority to his administration so he can micromanage tax credit programs,” Jones said.

Nixon to Offer ‘Border War’ Solution in KC Speech November 12, 2013

(AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is announcing a plan to end a business “border war” with Kansas over economic development.

Both states have used economic incentives and bonds to compete for businesses to locate or expand. Missouri and Kansas have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to the efforts.

Nixon planned to announce his proposal Tuesday in a speech to the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. He says it will promote growth in the Kansas City region.

Kansas lawmakers cut taxes in each of their past two sessions, at the urging of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Missouri’s Republican-dominated Legislature approved tax cuts this year largely in response to the Kansas cuts. But Nixon, a Democrat, vetoed the measure, and an effort to override the veto fell short in September.

Panel Says Border War May Be Waning October 18, 2013

(Left to right) Border War panelists Bill Hall, Martin Dickinson, Whitney Kerr and Pete Fullerton.

A set Of Kansas City area businessmen and experts say the business Border War between Kansas And Missouri may be settling down.
The four appeared at a panel discussion hosted by the Citizens Association at the Downtown Branch of the Public Library Thursday night.
“It’s not sustainable”, said Whitney Kerr. He is one of the leading developers and brokers of commercial rest estate in the metro.
Bill Hall repeated his much-discussed report from earlier in the year that the two states have spent in the range of $200 million in economic incentives just to shuffle jobs from one side of the state line to the other.
The panel says one of the problems in the business poaching problem is the definition of “new jobs”.
The panel discussed one potential way to slow the poaching may be to get lawmakers in both states to redefine that phrase.
The “new jobs” often refers to jobs that are new to that particular state, even though they simply be moving a few miles across the state line one way or another.
That idea was met with some skepticism as a solution that appears to be “easy”, but may have more complications in the details. Sent from my iPhone

Brownback and ‘ Border War’ On Regional CPAC Agenda in St. Louis This Month September 19, 2013

Post-Dispatch:
Among the topics of a major gathering of national conservatives here this month will be something Missouri has argued about a lot lately: state tax policies and their impact on state economies.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering at St. Charles Sept. 28 will feature a panel entitled “The Real War Between the States: How Americans Are Changing Zip Codes for Good Tax Codes,” organizers announced today.

It will explore the premise – touted by many Republicans, challenged by many Democrats – that state tax policy is an overriding factor for employers who are deciding whether to come to or remain in a state.

If that debate sounds familiar, it was at the center of Missouri’s big tax battle this summer between Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon and the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. The legislature passed House Bill 253 this year, lowering the state’s income tax rates, on the argument that it would spur job creation. Nixon vetoed it, saying the cuts as structured would benefit mostly the wealthy while pulling money from schools.

After a fervent statewide public relations fight from both sides, the Nixon’s veto withstood an override attempt this month.

CPAC is a regional convention of the American Conservative Union, meant to rally and showcase the American conservative political movement. ACU Chairman Al Cardenas said in an emailed statement that the panel will focus on tax policy in a “critical battleground” in job creation, “despite the temporary victory of liberal ideology over economic growth in Missouri.”

Among speakers at the CPAC gathering will be Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was a central figure in Missouri’s tax fight this summer. Perry stirred controversy here by voicing Missouri radio ads that critics alleged were an attempt to poach jobs from the state, helped lobby for the attempted override of Nixon’s veto.

In addition to Perry, speakers at the one-day CPAC event will include former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.

The event is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 28, at the St. Charles Convention Center. Further information is available at http://conservative.org/cpac/stlouis/

Perry Says Kansas Won’t Be Only State Coming After Missouri Businesses August 30, 2013

Texas Gov. Rick Perry in Missouri Thursday. Courtesy: Missouri Times

Texas Governor Rick Perry brought up the back-and-forth business border war between Kansas and Missouri during his swing through the St. Louis area Thursday.
“If they see the continual taxation burden in Missouri, it’s not just going to be Rick Perry showing up in Missouri knocking on the doors of all the businesses,” Perry said, according to the Associated Press.
The Texas Governor starred at two events in the St.Louis area. In one, his mission waste pitch his home state of Texas as an attractive place for Missouri businesses to move.
Perry has been featured on radio and TV commercials broadcast in Missouri leading up to Thursday’s appearance.
Perry says he is not offended when other governors recruit business in Texas.
“By competing against each other we make each other stronger,” Perry said.
Thursday evening at a political event in support of the Republican effort to override GovernorJay Nixon’s veto of a tax cut bill, the Missouri Times reported Perry claimed the tax cut and fewer regulations will help Missouri.
“’The fact is this: I truly believe that if you free-up individuals from over taxation, from over regulation, from over litigation, you make sure that you have public schools that are still delivering and skilled workforces, nobody is going to leave Missouri and leave anywhere,” Perry told the crowd, eliciting cheers.’
Missouri Governor Nixon spent part of Thursday in St. Louis as well.
He’s defending the veto and campaigning throughout Missouri. He’s hoping to round up enough votes to preserve his veto when lawmakers return to the Capitol for the veto session starting September 11.
“You take this fiscal experiment they’re running and take $850 million of general revenue out of this budget and imperil our triple-A credit rating, it is not the way to move the Show-Me State forward,” Nixon said Thursday.