Missouri Governor Calls Special Session to Fast Track Bridge Improvement Plan, Economic Development Package

August 10, 2007 -- JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, Senate President Pro Tem Michael R. Gibbons and House Speaker Rod Jetton today announced a special session of the Missouri General Assembly to begin August 20th to fast track the Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program to repair or replace more than 800 Missouri bridges and enact an economic development package which includes an expansion of the governor’s successful Quality Jobs Act.

“We have been working with transportation officials since last year to make Missouri bridges safer and sounder and the tragedy in Minnesota certainly illustrates the importance of our work,” Gov. Blunt said. “Now we need to clear this final hurdle in a special session to implement the Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program to make Missouri’s transportation infrastructure even stronger. Missourians have responded to the pro-jobs, pro-growth initiatives we have enacted by creating nearly 90,000 jobs since January 2005. The Quality Jobs Act is the most important economic development tool we have had to help create family-supporting jobs with good wages and health care benefits. I am asking the legislature to expand the Quality Jobs Act and other pro-jobs, pro-growth initiatives with a responsible economic development bill.”

Senate President Pro Tem Michael R. Gibbons said the Senate will work efficiently to pass the governor’s calls to improve the lives of Missourians. “The Quality Jobs Act has been extremely successful in providing more than 14,000 good-paying jobs with benefits to Missourians. This special session will allow us to expand the program’s cap to allow businesses to hire more Missourians,” Sen. Gibbons said. “I am also glad to see we will have an opportunity to move forward with the design and build project of more than 800 bridges that has been in the works since last fall. This step will generate much needed repairs and construction making Missouri’s bridges safer for our drivers.”

“I appreciate Gov. Blunt’s leadership in working with the legislature to reach an agreement that has brought us to a point where we can proceed with making Missouri a better place to live, work, and raise a family,” Speaker Jetton said. “A great deal of credit should be given to Sen. Griesheimer and Rep. Richard for their work on reaching a compromise for HB 327. They reached out and brought members from both legislative chambers and parties together to come to a consensus that everyone has agreed to.”

Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program

Gov. Blunt is asking the legislature to address the need to improve and replace hundreds of Missouri bridges with a legislative change to allow contractors to access the bonds needed for the projects. The bonds for the Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program will help protect the taxpayer by ensuring the work is completed by the contractors who fix and replace the bridges. Without this change, no contractors would be able to obtain the required bonds which would prevent the program from moving forward.

Economic Development Package

Lawmakers are also expected to address the need for an economic development package that includes an expansion of the Quality Jobs Act. The package would allow the Quality Jobs initiative to create even more family-supporting jobs by increasing its capacity from $12 million to $40 million. The package would also increase the Enhanced Enterprise Zone capacity from $7 million to $14 million and create a state match for the federal New Markets tax credit which brings investment to economically distressed areas.

Source: Missouri Governor

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