Long Neglects To Mention That His Campaign Consultant Is Also Evil
Billy Long -- a man so fed up with 'politics as usual' that he hired Jeff Roe, James Harris and an inside-the-Beltway media firm -- has responded to an ad from Americans for Job Security by slamming Gary Nodler and Jack Goodman for supporting "100 million in tax credits for a developer in St. Louis, Paul McKee Jr., helped southwest Missouri."
Left unsaid in Long's ad is the fact that Harris was paid by McKee to lobby for him on said $100 million tax-credit program.
h/t PoliticMo
From the Post-Dispatch archives (I can't find a working link for this at the moment):
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
June 17, 2007 SundayA tax-credit bill for one man? Developer Paul McKee helped draft a $100 million tax-credit program. Residents and lawmakers decry secrecy of land purchases and legislation.
By Virginia Young and Jake WagmanResidents were alarmed when they discovered that scores of homes and historic buildings near their Old North St. Louis neighborhood had been sold and left empty - their doors and windows removed, speeding decay.
When they traced the purchases, the trail led to prominent developer Paul J. McKee Jr. But McKee, best known for the 1,100-acre WingHaven development in St. Charles County, wouldn't say why he was amassing hundreds of parcels in St. Louis for more than three years.
A clearer picture emerged in Jefferson City this year, when the Legislature approved a $100 million tax credit for large-scale developments in impoverished areas. McKee spurred Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder to champion the bill, hired several lobbyists to push it and gave thousands of dollars - and use of a corporate plane - to politicians who helped pass it.
Gov. Matt Blunt still must sign the measure.
Here's how the tax credits would work: To be eligible for the state's investment, a redevelopment project must be at least 100 acres. Such a project would be roughly the size of two Pruitt-Igoes, the public housing complex west of downtown that was razed in the 1970s.
The city would have to sign off on any development plan. But April Ford-Griffin, the St. Louis alderman who represents some the neighborhoods in question, said McKee might have trouble finding support at City Hall. Ford-Griffin said she has tried repeatedly to contact McKee but has been unsuccessful.
"I'm very upset about the whole thing," Ford-Griffin said. "I feel like my community has been raped."
The alderman said that properties linked to McKee are left unkempt, with uncut grass and open entrances that invite crime. She has heard many complaints about the properties, though she said she does not know what McKee plans.
"Maybe they have a strategy only they know about," Ford-Griffin said. "I don't know what it is."
Many of the properties are surrounded by city-owned vacant land, which McKee could potentially acquire to expand his holdings. McKee has discussed his intentions with Mayor Francis Slay, but only in broad terms, according to an aide for the mayor.
"The mayor and I have met several times with Mr. McKee," said Jeff Rainford, Slay's chief of staff. "He has shown us a vision that is very exciting, but he has not shown us a plan."
Rainford added the "vision" includes office space, residential development and retail stores.
In Jefferson City, criticism has focused on whether the tax credit bill was designed solely for McKee. Some legislators were upset that the far-reaching measure was tucked into the governor's economic development bill.
"It's an attempt to hide a big pot of money for one guy," Sen. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City, said on the Senate floor last month. "The whole thing stinks," said Scott, who is one of the most senior legislators, with 22 years of service in the capital.
MOVER AND SHAKER
While he often operates behind the scenes, McKee, 62, is well-known in political, business and civic circles.
In 1979, he co-founded Paric Corp., a construction firm now run by his son. McKee moved on to operate McEagle Properties LLC, which is based in O'Fallon, Mo. The firm boasts projects ranging from the 500-acre NorthPark industrial project near Lambert Field to WingHaven, a 1,100-acre residential, retail and corporate development in St. Charles County.
McKee also is chairman of BJC HealthCare, the largest employer in the region. He is leading the development of Barat Academy in St. Charles County, the area's first private Catholic high school.
He declined through his attorney, Steven Stone of Clayton, to be interviewed, but provided responses to some written questions.
In e-mailed answers provided by Stone, McKee played down his vast city holdings, saying that he lacks enough land in St. Louis to qualify for the tax credit. He said he doubts he can assemble more lots because he is "no longer anonymous."
McKee said he is looking into partnering with others and is "in the process of selling or reducing our city holdings" but has no plan.
"We were never far enough along in our acquisitions to have considered development options," he said. McKee denied turning occupied buildings into nuisance properties, saying he was "prepared to be held to a higher standard than the property owners who sold to us."
Architectural historian Michael Allen, who lives on Sullivan Avenue between 13th and 14th streets, started conducting research into McKee's holdings several years ago, when houses in the area began changing hands. His work is catalogued on his blog, www.eco-absence.org.
Allen, a research associate for Landmarks Association of St. Louis, found that a network of connected holding companies - mostly limited-liability companies whose principals are difficult to trace - have bought up hundreds of pieces of land in the city over the past several years. The Post-Dispatch has identified more than 400 parcels with ties to McKee.
Some of the land has been in and around the Old North St. Louis neighborhood, an area most outsiders know mostly by the acclaimed Crown Candy Kitchen restaurant.
CONDITIONS CRITICIZED
Many of the parcels were purchased from the sheriff after property taxes went unpaid. Others were purchased from families.
Either way, many of the properties - some vacant lots, others brick homes - sit decrepit and falling apart all over the city's north side. One is an old Schnucks store. Another, a vacant veterans' post.
Some of the buildings have been condemned by city building inspectors. Others have been cited for multiple code infractions, from cracked walls and collapsed porches to trash buildup and having abandoned vehicles on the premises. Several have become targets of thieves and vandals.
"The doors are all open. You can see all the way through the back door. Everything is stripped out," said Jim Herzog, who has lived on the 2200 block of St. Louis Avenue for about 20 years.
At one property owned by a McKee-related company six blocks from Herzog's home, a sign warns "Brick theft is illegal." Elsewhere, an abandoned building in the 2300 block of North Market Street linked to McKee is marred by gang graffiti.
In December, the city condemned a property connected to McKee at 1521 Palm Street. The building had been cited for collapsed walls, a missing porch, missing windows, a defective roof and an inoperable electrical system.
The property is owned by Blairmont Associates, so named perhaps because its holdings include several parcels near the intersection of Blair Avenue and Montgomery Street.
Documents filed with the Federal Reserve System show that McKee owns 30 percent of Blairmont, as well as several other land-holding firms, including N&G Ventures and VHS Partners. Several of the companies list the same downtown address.
In October 2005, the city sued Blairmont to prevent the further deterioration of the Clemens House - a mansion connected to a relative of humorist Mark Twain. The lawsuit complained that the front of the mansion, bought by Blairmont in 2004, was sagging and separating from the rest of the house. There were gaping holes in the roof, the suit said, and a weakened foundation that was "creating a danger that the walls of the structure will crumble or cave."
The city agreed to withdraw its suit after Blairmont agreed to sell the property by May 2006. But, as of yet, the property is still owned by the firm, and is still in dangerous condition, with the front porch on the verge of collapse.
That's part of the harm Blairmont does to the neighborhood, residents say: The firm and related companies hold onto properties, refusing to sell them to individuals who are looking to rehab them or otherwise improve the buildings.
"Blairmont has a lock on it - they won't sell a thing," said Steven Kozlowski, who lives in the 2500 block of Blair Avenue.
Kozlowski lives across from an old auto yard owned by a limited-liability company with the same address as several other McKee-linked corporations. Kozlowski said he tried to buy the property from them to use as a garage. The developers refused, Kozlowski said, and the land has become a haven for drug users and prostitutes.
HOW BILL WOULD WORK
The city has 20,000 vacant lots and 5,500 vacant buildings ripe for redevelopment, but they are scattered throughout the city, according to Slay's office.
Supporters say incentives are needed because assembling large tracts of land in older areas is expensive. Developers must haggle with dozens of owners of small lots platted with 25-foot frontages.
"The cost and time required to assemble a bunch of 25-foot lots into parcels where you can do large-scale development is just astronomical," said Barbara Geisman, the mayor's development chief.
Under the bill, a developer could get tax credits that would wipe out all the interest costs and half the eligible land costs, including demolition expenses and maintenance costs for five years. To be eligible, a project would have to cover 100 acres. Land already purchased but not yet developed would qualify.
Tax credits would pump cash into construction because developers could sell the credits to wealthy individuals or companies. The buyers would use the credits to reduce their taxes. The program would cost the state up to $12 million a year, and it would expire when the amount awarded reached $100 million.
Kinder, the lieutenant governor, contends that the tax credit would generate 10 times its cost in new development. He denied that it favored McKee but acknowledged that McKee might have a head-start.
"If someone has been out there, assembling tracts for a while, that person is in a decent position to access the credits," Kinder said.
Kinder said the idea of helping cover land costs was inspired by NorthPark, a 550-acre business park that McKee helped build in north St. Louis County near Lambert Field. The federal government acquired the property as part of a Lambert Field airport-noise buyout plan.
"I want many NorthParks," Kinder said.
Kinder sought McKee's opinion before drafting the bill. "I took it to Paul," Kinder said. "He ran it by his lawyers. We got busy and came up with a legislative proposal."
In the written comments McKee supplied to the Post-Dispatch, he said he had hoped to tap the new tax credits to expand NorthPark. But because of the way the final bill was written, "It will be extremely difficult to use the tax credit at NorthPark or anywhere else," McKee said.
Applicants would have only six years to complete the purchases without using eminent domain. McKee said that deadline could be "of considerable concern to lenders because assemblage, without eminent domain, is a lengthy and expensive process."
Mike Jones, a top county official, echoed McKee's conclusion that the tax credit would be hard to use. Jones noted that a developer would have to spend private money to assemble 100 acres without any guarantee that the subsidy would be granted.
"They made a pretty steep hill for anybody to climb," said Jones, senior policy adviser to County Executive Charlie Dooley. "If you said 20 or 25 acres, you would have a lot more candidates."
'DONE IN THE DARK'
Kinder, who received $11,200 in campaign contributions from McKee's firms in December, unveiled the tax credit proposal at a Senate hearing on Blunt's economic development bill in February.
That month, McKee hired a prominent pair of lobbyists, Bill Gamble and Jorgen Schlemeier. Their clients range from casinos to pharmacists to nursing homes.
McKee later added two Republican lobbyists to his team. The duo, Jewell Patek and James Harris, are both former aides to Blunt, either when he was secretary of state or governor.
Shortly before the bill came up for debate, Senate President Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, needed a quick flight to a political event in Branson. McKee sent his plane. The round trip cost $3,188, which McKee covered as an in-kind campaign contribution.
Gibbons said he knows McKee "pretty well" and supported the bill long before the flight. Gibbons said he met last year with McKee, who explained the difficulties of assembling large tracts of land in urban areas, where lots are so small.
"That's really the biggest problem," Gibbons said. "I think it's a compelling argument.
"If this thing fulfills its mission, where you get people and businesses and opportunities in an area that doesn't have anything going for it, that's been a tremendous benefit for the people in the area and the state," he said.
Critics have attacked the proposal for its stealthy path. Initially, it was not filed as a bill, which would have triggered a public hearing where supporters and opponents could debate its merits.
"It was done in the dark," said Sen. Joan Bray, D-University City.
Only after it had been attached to the broader bill did the House hurriedly hold a hearing. Slay and Dooley sent aides to praise the plan.
Kinder said he tried to make the program palatable to critics. Among the safeguards: Less than 5 percent of the acreage in a project could consist of owner-occupied houses.
That would protect neighborhoods showing signs of revival, such as the one where Allen, the blogger, lives. He says that near his home, 12 buildings are undergoing renovation.
According to the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, more than $45 million has been invested or committed for projects in the Old North area, which is bounded roughly by Palm Street on the north, Cass Avenue on the south, Interstate 70 on the east and North Florissant Street on the west. Most of McKee's purchases are west of the Old North area.
While McKee had one meeting this spring with several Old North St. Louis leaders, the developer provided no details.
"I hope to continue these discussions, but when you're looking down the barrel of a massive incentive, I don't know how much leverage we have," said John Burse, an architect and president of the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group.
A decision on the bill is up to Blunt, who received $25,000 in campaign contributions from McKee's companies in March. A spokeswoman for the governor said staff members are preparing an analysis of the thick bill (HB327), which includes everything from the governor's Quality Jobs program to subsidies for beef-cow ranchers. Blunt has until July 14 to sign or veto it.
For now, resident Barbara Manzara said she spends her spare time boarding up vacant buildings and shepherding residents displaced by companies tied to McKee. Manzara lives at 19th Street and Hebert.
"The whole thing is just being done in this God-awful secret fashion," she said. "He's got so much land and he's sitting on it, and it's stopping good things from happening up here."
