Billions invested in economic development incentives with little result, study says

 By Alan J. Ortbals

Over the past 15 years, the St. Louis metro area has invested more than $2.5 billion in economic development incentives through tax increment financing and other types of development districts. Most of that money has gone to support retail developments which have generated a small number of net new jobs paying low wages.
  These are the conclusions of a new report released by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments in January.
  The report, An Assessment of the Effectiveness and Fiscal Impacts of the Use of Local Development Incentives in the St. Louis Region, took more than a year to compile due to the poor recordkeeping of local and state governments, according to Les Sterman, executive director of the council.
   “This is all tax money that’s going to these incentives, and there is a required reporting arrangement so that the information should be kept in one place,” Sterman said. “The problem is that not everybody reports, there is no penalty for not reporting and a lot of the information isn’t accurate.”  [continue]