On Friday, November 29th Governor Nixon called for a Special Session and the Missouri General Assembly convened on Monday, December 2nd to address a potential jobs and economic development opportunity incentive proposal for the State of Missouri relating to the new Boeing 777X, commonly referred to as “The Dreamliner”.
Governor Nixon met with the Majority Caucus on Monday to brief us about the Boeing Project and answer any questions the members might have had relating to the incentive proposal. For those of you who don’t know, the Boeing Company is an aerospace engineering and manufacturing firm that has maintained a presence in Missouri for several years now. This project would be an expansion on the existing Boeing jobs already in the state by at least 2,000 jobs and potentially create as many as 8,000 new jobs for Missouri.
The House and Senate met throughout the week to work on this important issue. As a member of the Economic Development Committee, I had the opportunity to see this bill throughout the entire process. After it left our committee, it went to the House floor for debate. The first result of action for the Boeing project was completed by the Missouri Senate approving their bill (SCS Senate Bill 1, E.C.) by a 23 to 8 bi-partisan majority on December 4th. On December 6th, after the bill passed through the Economic Development Committee, the MO House of Representatives passed the Bill by a bi-partisan vote of 127 to 20. The Emergency Clause passed as well by a vote of 127 to 19.
After careful thought and deliberation and after hearing feedback from many in the district I supported this bill. I ran for State Representative on a job-building agenda and I feel this is a great opportunity to bring more jobs here to the Show-Me State. The Bill that was approved utilizes certain incentives already in place and also has safeguards that will only offer incentives to the Boeing Company once they have delivered on creating new jobs and other economic development growth factors such as infrastructure development.
The incentives in the Bill were crafted in a way to require the Boeing Company to build infrastructure and hire employees before they would reap any benefits in the form of tax reductions. Missouri’s incentives are linked to job creation, ranging from $435 million over two decades for the creation of 2,000 jobs to $1.7 billion for the addition of 8,000 jobs.
Boeing is expected to make a decision sometime in mid to late January as to which State they will build “The Dreamliner” in. Regardless of the outcome, the MO General Assembly has produced a competitive incentive package that I hope Boeing will accept.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact my office if I can ever be of assistance to you. I can be reached by phone at 573-751-4028 or by email at jim.hansen@house.mop.gov