Star Bonds - Alive.....No Surprise

As I said last Friday when I wrote about this ongoing Bond issue.

Which town will they turn to next and what funding will they attempt to receive for their business. Time will tell.

The development is being moved. The target is Marion for this always ambiguous "destination development"

Story from St. Louis Business Journal - 5/4

The Southern online story - 5/1

Second Southern story - 5/4

From Progress Illinois - near the bottom- 5/4

Would have put this up earlier in the week but I was out of town for business. I have to say the local acceptance of the project from elected officials is much greater this time around it seems. Carbondale's mayor seems to be one of the few asking questions. Costello is out of the development team as it moved into his fathers congressional district.

I can understand how this seems like a great deal for the economy of Southern Illinois. This isn't just a deal for part of the state. The state budget far from stable and creating a development that "could" send money to help at the state level without these Bonds does not improve the situation. It will create jobs both during construction and upon completion but the revenue to the state is my issue. I have not read too far into the new bill but I did see one major change.

Its not called "The STAR Bonds Financing Act" anymore its short name is "The Innovation Development and Economy Act". This is a good move as some of the negative press associated with the STAR Bond name may be sidestepped. Misleading as politics usually is this change should not surprise anyone.

While I think the plan has a lot of work to accomplish before the end of this week. I think one item is being forgotten. In the original plan I remember there being a condition of no STAR Bond districts being allowed within a 250-mile radius of another, or something along those lines. With the Glen Carbon location that radius would cut a large majority of Chicago out of the party. With the move to Marion anything north of I-80/94 is fair game. The field day that will take place in the TIF District known as Chicago could be astounding. A quick search I did of the bill turned up no radius requirements at the current time.

Link to Ammendment 3 of SB2093