St. Louis County Sales Tax Split Ending? (Bridgeton, St. Ann: zoning, store)

[BubbyBobble]

Found this an interesting read:


So what do you guys think? Not sure about this. I can see issues if this ends. But it seems like some cities can be slackers. Can this promote growth or war?

St. Louis County seems to ping pong between what is a "good" area. Especially with the Northwest Plaza example. Hmmmm...




Oh and here's some visual info

[marigolds6]

There are too many powerful winners from the current system and the legislature has no interest in changing this.

[flynavyj]

So basically, cities that either don't have a bustling commercial sector like being in a pool that guarantees them a revenue stream. Cities that do have a booming commercial sector dislike being in the pool because they want to keep all their $$ in their own city.

I guess I have a dog in this fight considering where I call home. I think it would be interesting to see the opinion of St. Ann's elected officials prior to the Northwest Plaza collapse in the early 2000's...and I'd like to see their reaction to this issue if the Northwest Plaza relaunch goes well.

I can understand the thought that some of these cities are lazy, and doing nothing to better themselves, or make themselves competitive for businesses. But I also think it's pretty ridiculous when two cities are in competition to keep or attract a business that's already established in a neighboring city. The recent example of the previously established Walmart situated on the Bridgeton/St. Ann city line, which has since become the Bridgeton Super Walmart, leaving a large empty store front in a small parcel of land owned by Bridgeton that would often be mistaken for being St. Ann.

Competition is good for businesses, but I can see both benefits and drawbacks to this type of competition. So all in all, I think it's a wash.

Interesting read nonetheless.

[marigolds6]

Is also completely screws over any city with an industrial base. Since you do not get sales tax for industrial and all your residents end up spending their money in neighboring commercial cities which keep their sales tax, not only do you deal with higher infrastructure and policing costs, but you get far less revenue to deal with it.

No surprise that industry and manufacturing have consistently declined in the region since the 1980s now. (Also no surprise that cities have aggressively annexed commercial zoned unincorporated land over the last decade. The only way those cities made themselves competitive for business was by drawing creative annexation boundaries that allowed them to annex commercial land with less than 100 votes.)

[flynavyj]

The reason for the drastic decline of American industry is far more complex than tax competition between various municipalities and counties, especially as those tax incentives relate to commercial businesses. I won't lie and say there's not the possibility for some overlap, but I don't think that's the driving force that caused American industry to be less competitive on the world stage.

[marigolds6]

You are right; the overall decline in industry has little to do with Missouri sales tax policies. But the sales tax policy in Missouri is a driving force to what little industry we have moving across the river (despite Illinois being a relatively noncompetitive state, but with cities willing to allow industrial zoning).