Amid partisan divisiveness in Missouri, a cooperative initiative within the state and with a neighboring state is welcome.
Gov. Jay Nixon on Tuesday signed legislation offering a truce in the costly border war with Kansas that has diminished tax revenue for both states.
The Democratic governor's signature on a bill authored by a Republican senator and approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature marked a departure from partisan conflict last week regarding Missouri's budget.
The Missouri law to halt a mutually detrimental battle of tax incentives in the Kansas City area is a sensible truce. The proposal, however, becomes effective only if Kansas enacts a similar policy. We hope Kansas officials also will embrace common sense.
The need for a truce became apparent after Missouri and Kansas began one-upping each other in offering tax incentives to lure businesses. The law would prohibit such relocation incentives in four Missouri and four Kansas counties.
Donald Hall Jr., president and CEO of Hallmark Cards, said the war of incentives "has cost taxpayers hundred of millions of dollars and has generated little or no economic activity for either state." He concluded: "Neither state is a winner in this game."
In signing the legislation, Nixon emphasizes cooperation instead of competition. "But let's be honest," Nixon said, "in Kansas City, one of the nation's largest metropolitan areas separated merely by a state line, these economic incentives don't always work as they should and can actually diminish the region's ability to compete as a region globally for jobs and investments."
He added: "Every dollar we spend moving a job from one part of the region to another is a dollar we can't invest in creating new jobs, educating our workforce, marketing the greater Kansas City area to the world."
We concur.
The border war is not productive. Worse, it is counter-productive.
End it.