urbanSTL

Without knowing too much about the issues involved in coming up with funds for this project, I would guess that hub organizers decided to go to Jeff City because the state is in a better position to offer the incentives that would provide the Chinese with adequate assurance that the necessary parties and infrastructure developments will quickly materialize in StL. The state is able to offer a low-risk, performance-based tax incentives worth hundreds of millions. On the other hand, the city would probably have to issue bonds and such, and it would probably be more difficult for StL to raise enough funds to provide hundreds of millions in incentives. It would also probably entail more risks.
Just guesses. I didn't ask my source questions like this when we talked a couple weeks ago because I didn't want to be an ass.

China Hub incentives grounded for now, but may fly later
By Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter
Posted 6:28 pm Tue., 10.18.11

Mike Jones, chairman of the region's China Hub Commission, says the effort to persuade China to locate a cargo hub at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport remains alive despite the General Assembly's failure to pass related tax incentives.

But he acknowledges that the legislature did inflict a wound.

"By not getting anything done, you put your future in the hands of other people,'' Jones said. "We did not do ourselves any favors."


link: http://www.stlbeacon.org/issues-politic ... -china-hub

Unfortunately, we were just screwed by Missourah. I hope that World Series euphoria doesn't overshadow this tremendous loss. I love the Cardinals, but this had the potential to generate far more gain for the region than anything that a baseball could ever offer.

Again, I offer the wisdom of Bill McClellan: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/colu ... dce3a.html

It's even more fitting now that Mizzou is about to join the SEC. Honestly, I never really feel like I was from Missouri until I enrolled at Mizzou Law a couple years ago. Missouri has always just been an afterthought to me. From my perspective, St. Louis might as well be within the borders of some other state. I never told anyone that I'm from "Missouri." I'm not ashamed or anything. It's just never really dawned on me.

Nixon: Billions worth of deals on tap with China

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon plans to leave Friday for a trade trip to China that he says will seal the deal on billions of dollars of exports over the next three years.

But the trip won't be quite as grand as some Missouri officials and business leaders had originally hoped. That's because it is coinciding with the gradual demise of a special legislative session in which Missouri lawmakers have failed to pass a bill authorizing millions of dollars of tax credits that had been intended to transform the St. Louis airport into a hub for Chinese cargo planes.

Nixon said Tuesday that the trade mission to China still can be a success.

"There is a lot more to the relationship as far as trade and products than just the airport in St. Louis," Nixon said at a Kansas City news conference promoting his China trip. "We have folks from all across the Show Me State that are selling products internationally, and especially to China, and we think that there is absolutely no reason why we can't continue to maintain these agreements and to see further concrete steps forward in our trade relationship."

link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/44952246

How much effort has the St. Louis political and business establishments put in to explaining to the rest of the state how important the region is to the state's prosperity? Any sort of advertising campaign on how much of the state's revenue comes from the St. Louis metro region, how many dollars are spent in St. Louis versus how many tax dollars come out of it, etc.? The general view on the forum seems to be that the rest of the state doesn't realize how important St. Louis is to the state, so what can we do to make the case? If it's been done before, what do we need to do differently, or more persistently, or what population do we need to target, etc?

anything over 50 miles is socialism

hahahahaha! i love it. brilliant!
Someone needs to put this on the ballot. Where's Rex Sinquefield when we need him?

The Onion article below, which I read years ago, recently came to mind in light of all this Occupy/Tea Party bs. I think it applies here too. Missourah is just missing the freaking point!
http://www.theonion.com/articles/79-per ... irely,640/

And what are the chances that the 2013 statehouse is going to be much more favorable?

I think that might be code for "Jason Crowell will have exceeded his term limits by then."

Alex Ihnen wrote:And what are the chances that the 2013 statehouse is going to be much more favorable?

It seems like a big part of the problem was that the leadership of the two chambers were not willing to compromise. Perhaps new leaders will be; they certainly won't be any more inflexible.

Also, there's now over a year for hub backers to be be more vocal in outstate Missouri, and even Kansas City, about how the hub will benefit the entire state, and, perhaps in conjunction with the RCGA and other economic development players, to explain why a vibrant St. Louis economy is a prerequisite for a prosperous Missouri. If it's such a slam-dunk case, someone needs to be out there making it not just to the politicians but to voters. We already know that outstate voters are not predisposed to do things for St. Louis, so all the planning for pro-St. Louis legislation should be done with that in mind. Complaining about it won't help, we need to figure out what steps we can take to deal with it.

As a Plan B, this seems too easy to me, so someone tell me where the fault in my plan is (I'm confident it's faulty, I just don't know all the specifics to point it out myself)

Why can't Lambert fund this plan themselves by redistributing landing fees collected by the cargo-carrying planes? Allow the airport to pool X% of landing fees up to $XXXXXXX & then credit/pay/reimburse the builders of warehouses within 10 miles of Lambert.

Are landing fees already discounted to international cargo shipments?
Are they not collected at all on cargo?
I suspect the biggest hurdle would be Lambert's lack of authority to pay/credit outside warehouses, without some sort of government intervention (Is that government intervention on a local, state, or federal level?)

Please tell me the 10 different reasons why this is just an all-around impossible idea, otherwise, why is the airport not pursuing this?

Color me crazy; I think we're very much still in play. So $360 Million couldn't be raised at the state level in the form of tax incentives. Big Deal. It sounds like very little is accomplished at the state level aside from dog breeding regulations.

$360M isn't actually that much money. The power players, I hope, now begin to evaluate other options. Just because a "Plan B" hasn't been vocalized doesn't mean the power players didn't see this coming and at least thought through this possibility. Again, its so "Show ME" to now lambaste everyone that has worked diligently to land the Chinese (pun intended) because the low-hanging fruit option didn't pan out. In other words, thinking through this as a business person, I'm going to first try and spend little money schmoozing policy makers in Jeff City in attempt to pass tax incentive legislation before I spend big money swaying public opinion or funding the operation myself.

I've been agnostic on the China Hub proposal. How do those in favor respond to Aerotropolis author Greg Lindsay's pointed and continual criticisms of the proposal. After the comments in the P-D several months ago, he discussed St. Louis as a "cautionary tale" at length during a discussion at the National Building Museum

Start at 1:02:30 : http://www.nbm.org/media/audio/aerotrop ... -well.html

To summarize his points:
1. "Why I've told them [us] this is a terrible idea is that most freight doesn't fly in freighters, it flies in the bellies of planes" 80% of freight from China/Asia is not carried on freight aircraft, but rather in the holds of large passenger aircraft by Cathay Pacific and other large carriers. People are more valuable traveling from Hong Kong to LAX, so the freight will follow.

2. The Aerotropolis tax credit simply builds warehouses in the hopes that air freight traffic will result

3. The economics don't make sense because the return cargo is wishful at best. "Cattle and pigs are not something you are going to fly to China, especially if you can just fly the genetic information to breed those cattle and pigs"

4. "St. Louis wants to be an air hub. They're going back to competing with Chicago... I told them its not going to work because O'Hare is one of the busiest hubs on the planet. It's a center of gravity that you're not going to displace with a handful of flights"

5. "It's a too many chiefs not enough indians concept" Cities like St. Louis and Indianapolis have finally realized that they're being left out of the global economy, but it's too late. "I don't see St. Louis having a future in air transportation. They shouldn't spend $360 million on tax breaks for air freight. They should spend it on education."

Yeah, Greg Lindsay's criticisms really missed the mark. In light of how smart and knowledgeable he is, one has to suspect that he had ulterior motives. Considering that he is the editor of FedEx's PR publication, and that FedEx reportedly fought to sabotage this deal, I think it's pretty clear that he was a hired gun.

It would be interesting to see if St. Louis City, Saint Louis County and Saint Charles County could come up with some sort of multi-jurisdictional governance model like Great Rivers Greenway or Bi-State focused on Lambert international frieght. Who knows, that might even pay dividends in future collaborations.

One thing I will say in the General Assembly's defense.... it is kind of weird that with four years of work by the Hub leaders and no real true deadline, it was presented to the GA (and the public, which also really only heard about this at the same time) in February as something that they had to do this year. It usually takes a few years to get legislation through and build public support.

Alex Ihnen wrote:I think the premise that Greg and others missed is that the model for air freight is changing (or may change) as the Chinese seek to control freight. Yes, the Chinese use domestic carriers to ferry cargo, but they would rather fly their own planes. Second, we're not really talking about an aerotropolis. We're talking about increasing exports. The tax credits would not be awarded unless exports actually occur. There would be no expenditure in the "hopes" that something positive may happen. It may be fair for him to state that it's too late for St. Louis to compete, but we're better off trying. What if Mr. Lindsay is wrong? Should STL just take his word? In the scheme of the state's budget, $360M just isn't a make or break amount. Let's try it.

Ok I buy that premise and I understand that Mr. Lindsay may well have ulterior motivations.

However, the issue of return economics is still an open question. What are we filling the plane with to go back, and is it sustainable in the long term? I believe the first flight was a one-time consignment by Emerson electric, and the second return flight was only half full?

What this comes down to is a simple question: are we going to try to go it alone in the face of difficult competition (as we did with railroads) or figure out a way to tap into a regional system and leverage existing resources. I find the the silence on true high speed rail to Chicago (or Kansas City) curious given the economic watershed of Chicago.