CCS/HCS#2/SS/SCS/SB 718 - This act increases the annual cap on the amount of tax credits the Department of Economic Development may authorize for the Enhanced Enterprise Zone Program from fourteen million dollars to twenty-four million dollars. The fiscal year cap on economic development tax credits that are approved as part of the Neighborhood Assistance Program is increased from four million dollars to six million dollars. The city of Harrisonville is authorized to impose, upon voter approval, a sales tax of up to one half of one percent for the operation of public safety departments including employee compensation, pension programs, health care, employment of additional police officers, and additional equipment and facilities. The city of Raytown is authorized to impose, upon voter approval, a sales tax of up to one half of one percent for the purpose of improving public safety in the city, including expenditures on equipment, city employee salaries and benefits, and facilities for police, fire and emergency medical providers. 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of Governments to create a TIF commission in the same manner as the creation of a TIF commission in St. Louis County is repealed.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city, town, or village under the authority of such Council to obtain permission of the county TIF commission is also repealed.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 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. 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. 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, 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. 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