Bigger things are planned.

During the chaotic final hours of the legislative session that ended May 31, Illinois lawmakers passed a bill that could help turn 900 acres of corn and bean fields near Glen Carbon into a “destination attraction” that would draw shoppers and sightseers from a radius of 250 miles.

Just what that destination attraction might be was not specified. Within 250 miles of Glen Carbon, you’ve got all of metro St. Louis and parts of metro Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville and points in between. Aside from oceans or mountains, it’s hard to think of what unique attraction Glen Carbon might offer.

Nevertheless the legislature — with the state budget hanging in the balance and an ethics package waiting for action — found time to pass Senate Bill 1909, 223 pages of opaque prose that commits the state to a new funding mechanism called STAR bonds. You’ve heard of tax increment financing? STAR bonds are TIFs on steroids.

STAR stands for sales tax and revenue or state tax anticipated revenue. SB 1909 allows the state to issue 23-year bonds to qualifying projects, with said bonds to be backed by 100 percent of all the new state and county sales tax revenue the project generates.

The first, and so far only, STAR bond project is the University Town Center proposed by a group led by Bruce Holland, president and CEO of Holland Construction in Swansea. He says his $1 billion project south of Glen Carbon will create 10,000 construction jobs and 3,100 permanent jobs; construction will spin off $1.5 billion in economic activity, his consultants claim.

As originally written, SB 1909 would have devoted not just the state sales tax revenue to the project, but also occupation taxes, use taxes, excise taxes and hotel taxes — even levee taxes for a development in a flood plain. The final bill that emerged limits the state’s contribution to sales taxes alone.

The final version also gave final approval of any STAR bond project to the state revenue director, who would have to certify that it was creating new revenue and not just cannibalizing revenue from neighboring communities.

What Kansas City STAR bonds wrought.

STAR bonds have been controversial in several states. They were used successfully in Kansas to build a NASCAR track in suburban Kansas City along with an adjacent retail, housing and entertainment complex.
The track clearly is a unique destination for the few weekends a year that races are held. The Kansas Speedway operators are trying to lure a casino operation to the track in partnership with the gaming arm of the Cordish Co. of Baltimore, putative developers of St. Louis’ Ballpark Village. The “destination shopping” in Kansas includes a Cabela’s Sporting Goods outlet and a Nebraska Furniture superstore.

The big worry among mayors of Metro East communities not named Glen Carbon is that a STAR bond-funded project would have the same effect as a TIF-funded project: Sucking jobs and businesses out of their towns. That’s been the effect of TIF-backed retail projects in the area, according to a recent study by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments.

TIFs originally were created to help distressed communities compete on a more level playing field with “greenfield” developments in the suburbs. They were not intended for affluent communities like Des Peres and Richmond Heights, or to tear up farmland or develop in floodplains — both of which would be the case near Glen Carbon.

This STAR bill is a dog. Gov. Pat Quinn should veto it.