A swing and a miss

The state of Missouri has come up short in its efforts to attract a Bombardier aircraft plant to Kansas City – a project that would have created jobs across the metro area, including Eastern Jackson County.

The state offered $240 million in tax incentives, Kansas City threw in bonds to help build the plant, and the weak U.S. dollar (compared with the Canadian dollar) worked in favor of the Kansas City proposal. Still, the company stuck with its facilities near Montreal and will expand there.

This was an unusual move for the state of Missouri, which has not often gotten directly involved – with huge incentives – in the bidding for big projects such as this. The 2,100 manufacturing jobs Bombardier envisioned would have greatly aided the Kansas City economy.

The state, however, deserves credit for pursuing a significant number of head-of-household jobs. Too often, tax incentives have gone for retailers that are nice to have but that don’t generate very many full-time, good-paying jobs..