Reports

Potential Study of the St. Louis Lambert Airport

Summary paragraph: TO COME Post Board meeting.

Reports

Meeting Materials

East-West Gateway Board of Directors, February 26, 2020

East-West Gateway Executive Advisory Committee, February 18, 2020

East-West Gateway Board of Directors, January 29, 2020

East-West Gateway Executive Advisory Committee, January 21, 2020

  • Meeting Audio (Note: Discussion of the potential study of the airport takes place at about the 27 minute to 29 minute.)

Development Incentives Research

In 2008, in response to concerns about the long-term effects on the economic health of the region and the fiscal well-being of local governments, the East-West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG) Board of Directors directed staff to address three principal questions:

  • How much has the region “spent” on development incentives, including: tax increment financing (TIF), transportation development districts (TDDs), community improvement districts (CIDs), and business development districts (BDDs)?
  • What effect has the use of incentives had on local governments’ ability to finance essential public services?
  • Has there been a distributional effect with regard to race and income?

In 2011, EWG staff completed a final report to address these questions. Periodic updates are made to the report and the accompanying data. Below are all of these reports and data files as well as a 2009 interim report and additional reports that informed the research.

Commissioned Reports from Area Universities

In 2009, EWG commissioned the Applied Research Collaborative (ARC), an organization of local researchers from area universities, to analyze four aspects of the broader research questions posed by the Board of Directors: the economic impact of TIFs on jobs and taxable sales, the impact of TIFs on local, municipal fiscal health, the economic and racial disparities of TIFs, and the use of TIFs in St. Louis County and the Metro East.

St. Louis Metropolitan Forum

The St. Louis Metropolitan Forum (the Forum), created by the St. Louis Regional Chamber (formerly the Regional Chamber and Growth Association), FOCUS St. Louis, and EWG brought together regional business, civic and government leaders who chose to focus on regional fiscal reform; viewing it as “a seminal issue that would define the future of the St. Louis region.” The Forum and the multi-disciplinary board of national experts it commissioned, comprehensively examined the issues facing the St. Louis region. The resulting key findings and recommendations presented the state of the region in a bleak reality and called on the region to set aside old ways of thinking and rise to the challenge of adopting an agenda for regional fiscal reform.

Questions?

Contact EWG staff by phone at (314) 421.4220 or (618) 274.2750 or by email at dirr@ewgateway.org.