JEFFERSON CITY • The Senate making deeper cuts to tax credits would be a deal-breaker for a proposed economic development bill, House Speaker Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, said Friday.

A compromise bill was crafted this summer after six weeks of negotiation between House and Senate leaders, Tilley said, and he expects the Senate to live up to that deal. 

“Decimating our state’s economic development tools is not on the table,” Tilley said.

Originally, legislative leaders agreed to certain caps on each tax credit program, such as $90 million for historic preservation and $110 million for low-income housing development.

The latest version of the bill -- which was circulated yesterday and is expected to be offered on the Senate floor on Tuesday -- would gradually make deeper cuts in the development programs. By 2015, each would be capped at $70 million a year, though legislators could increase those amounts by appropriation.

Historic preservationist sent out an email Thursday calling the new proposed cap “completely unreasonable. “

Tilley said he filed his own economic development legislation – which includes $360 million in tax credits to convert Lambert-St. Louis International Airport into an international trade hub -- so the public can see the deal agreed upon by Senate leaders. But he has no intention of moving forward with his bill, he said.

“The Senate told us they are moving forward,” he said. “So right now, I expect them to move forward.”

The House has held up its end of the bargain during the special legislative session, Tilley said. After finalizing bills all morning, the House took only 20 minutes Friday afternoon to give its approval to six separate pieces of legislation, ranging from a bill granting St. Louis control of its police department to property tax relief for businesses destroyed by a natural disaster.

After passing all six bills, the House adjourned until Tuesday. House Majority Leader Timothy Jones, R-Eureka, said the House’s schedule going forward would be completely dependent on what happens in the Senate.

The Senate will return Monday and is expected to take up the economic development bill on Tuesday.

Virginia Young of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.