Local News

Tax Incentives Hurt St. Louis Kids

Published

2 years ago

March 12, 2024

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The St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) began rolling out flashy, new promotional videos last month promoting the use of tax incentives. The videos — produced by public relations firm Candid Marketing, which SLDC has paid $30k per month since 2021 — were released against the backdrop of a report from national experts Good Job First that St. Louis area students are losing out on hundreds of millions of tax dollars due to local governments’ use of tax incentives.

SLDC’s videos boast that incentivized projects between 2017 and 2022 created new jobs and will lead to approximately $53 million of new property tax revenue over 10 years. They further claim this is great for our city and our public schools since new revenue should increase the St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS)’s budget.

However, the promotional campaign leaves out a crucial detail: SLPS lost out on nearly $168 million in revenue during the same time period — money that could have gone towards improving educational outcomes for our city’s children.

Let’s break these numbers down further. Each SLPS student loses out on approximately $1,634 per year, the report says. How much would the revenue reported by SLDC make up for? Only about $187 per student per year. That’s just about one-ninth of what’s been lost per pupil to tax giveaways. Further, SLPS’ figure is produced as part of their annual comprehensive financial report following governmental rules on tax abatement disclosures. It’s official. The SLDC’s figure? It was produced internally with no oversight or supported data provided. Go figure.

The money our children are losing out on should spark a political crisis in this city. So what are our elected officials doing? I’m glad you asked.

Last session, the Board of Aldermen passed Board Bill 64 (now Ordinance 71620) with the promise that it would reform our tax incentive process in St. Louis. The main impetus for this change was not to protect education funding, but federal indictments of three aldermen for accepting bribes related to tax incentives.

Did anything change? Well, sort of. The Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Commission has not met since September 2022 because no proposals have been submitted. Developers have opted for other incentives, such as abatement and community improvement districts. For example, Board Bill 129, sponsored by Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, just recently passed, creating a 10-year, 75 percent tax abatement for a hotel renovation which will result in an approximately $1.6 million loss in revenue to SLPS.

One positive change that came from the ordinance is a required consultation of SLPS on incentives so the district can weigh in on bills affecting their revenue. To date, this legally required consult does not appear to have occurred despite multiple incentives being passed by the Board of the Aldermen.

Indeed, the main outcome of Board Bill 64 is the significant increase in the role and power of SLDC in development proposals. The idea was that the significant role and power of the aldermen led to the abuse of the process cataloged in the indictments. But SLDC was not blameless in that affair, and their current missteps do not inspire confidence.

This bleak picture can be fixed. A small step forward is AlderwomanAlishaSonnier’s Board Bill 198, which would have required developers to pay outstanding city property taxes before applying for new tax incentives. Unfortunately, aldermen amended the bill to only require them to be current upon entering into the development agreement. Still, this sort of reform could serve to help our schools and curtail deadbeat developers.

The experts at Good Jobs First also recommend shielding SLPS from tax abatements so they only abate payments to the city, not to the schools, and giving the district veto power over any TIF district. That change could generate significant additional revenue to the district, which could be used to tackle problems facing SLPS’ unhoused population — about 20 percent of the student body. Another positive effort by local community groups calls on Washington University in St Louis to make PILOTs — payments in lieu of taxes — on their properties to fund area public schools more appropriately. Since they claim pride in being in St. Louis, shouldn’t they be proud to pay their fair share?

The bottom line: our city’s children are losing out due to our city’s reckless tax incentive policies. SLDC is misrepresenting the benefit of such incentives by ignoring the lost revenue to SLPS. We need our civic leaders to stop the spin and act on policy recommendations that will help our schools and our children.

Ben Conover is a (volunteer) organizer for Solidarity with SLPS, a local group of residents working to support, defend and improve Saint Louis Public Schools. A longtime St. Louisan, Conover has worked on the data side of campaigns to defeat right-to-work laws, raise the minimum wage and clean up Missouri’s ethics laws. The RFT welcomes well-reasoned essays and op-eds on topics of local interest. Contact [email protected] if you’ve got something to say.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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