Major St. Joseph businesses provide support for school tax levy increase, opponents criticize tax abatements
November 3, 2017
By Johnny Kampis
Editor's note: This is the fifth part of a series of stories that Ballotpedia is publishing regarding the St. Joseph School District and its property tax levy. Click here, here, here, and here for the first four installments.
As St. Joseph voters prepare to head to the polls on November 7 to vote on a property tax levy that would raise an expected $11.5 million annually for the St. Joseph School District, the measure is receiving significant support from area businesses and organizations.
At the forefront of the pro-levy effort is the former Heartland Regional Medical Center, which now does business as Mosaic Life Care and serves as the largest employer in the area. On September 26, the 501(c)3 organization contributed $20,000 to the pro-levy Committee To Move St. Joseph Forward.[1]
Pat Dillon, the vice president of advocacy and government relations for Mosaic Life Care, also serves as a co-chair for the Committee to Move St. Joseph Forward.[2] He told supporters at a kickoff rally that the school district must move beyond its troubled past that saw administrators receive unauthorized stipends as the schools cut back on student services. At the rally, Dillon said, "A lot of times there's the right time to do the right thing. This is one of those times."[3]
The pro-levy committee has raised $128,029, according to its most recent campaign finance disclosure report filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Supporters of a Better SJSD, the group opposed to the levy, had raised $40,478, according to its most recent disclosure. According to its most recent IRS Form 990 disclosure, the nonprofit Mosaic Life Care reported more than $649 million in revenue with a $42 million surplus for fiscal year 2015.[4] This followed surpluses of about $45 million in both 2014 and 2013.[5][6]
The Internal Revenue Service limits the political advocacy in which such 501(c)3 groups can participate, but giving money in support of ballot measures is legal since it is defined as lobbying instead of electioneering. Advocacy of ballot measures is considered more in the realm of free speech than tax law, according to existing campaign finance regulations. On its Form 990 for 2015, Mosaic Life Care reported giving $56,856 in grants to other organizations for political lobbying purposes. The organization also listed $83,167 in other political spending in 2015.[7]
One point of contention raised by the levy's opponents is that Mosaic Life Care and some other organizations contributing to the Committee To Move St. Joseph Forward are tax-exempt or have received abatements that reduced their tax burdens. These businesses and organizations will therefore be less affected by a property tax increase than the average resident.
One example of this is Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, which also contributed $20,000 to support the property tax levy campaign. The business received a 10-year abatement of 95 percent of its property taxes as well as $11 million for machinery and equipment from the city of St. Joseph in 2012. This deal was struck in exchange for the pets and livestock pharmaceutical company expanding its manufacturing in the area and moving its headquarters there. The business was criticized by some St. Joseph residents in 2016 when it moved its headquarters again to Atlanta, despite the city offering an additional 10-year extension on the existing tax abatement or a new abatement if the company expanded. The company continues to conduct research and manufacturing in St. Joseph.
Chris Danford, a former teacher and district school board member working with Supporters of a Better SJSD, told Ballotpedia she understands why some in the business community are supporting the increase.
“I can appreciate that businesses are thinking, ‘Well, we’ve got to do something to get our schools to be stronger.’ The thought always is to give them more money and that will make them better. We know that’s not always the case. How do we know if we give them money we’re going to get the results?”
That’s a sentiment echoed by another former board member, Eric Bruder, who was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Dan Colgan. Colgan helped facilitate the secret payments to administrators while serving as superintendent for 14 years and later as president of the board; he ultimately went to prison on charges of wire fraud related to his pension and is now in a halfway house awaiting his release.
Bruder, who serves as vice president of strategic operations for Herzog Contracting Company (which has contributed $40,000 to the anti-levy Supporters of a Better SJSD), told Ballotpedia that business recruitment can be a challenge if the local school district struggles because school quality is a major factor for young professionals looking to start families. He noted that St. Joseph has three high schools that are more than a century old and an elementary school that was “first built when Abraham Lincoln was elected. Obviously, it’s been upgraded over the years, but the point is it’s old.”
Bruder stated that St. Joseph also ranks low on teacher pay, student-teacher ratios, and graduation rates.
“Their passion for wanting to support the school district is right. There is nothing wrong with that,” Bruder said of local business leaders. “The problem is they are putting their money behind the wrong plan, because this plan – if it would pass – three years from now or less when they come back to the public and say ‘We’ve got to do something with our buildings. We need a bond levy of another $1.30, or $13 million a year, to get us some new buildings.’ People are going to ask ‘What did you do with the $12 million a year we gave you two years ago?’ The general public doesn’t realize this levy does nothing for facilities. I think it’s completely irresponsible.”
Bruder also argued that the companies supporting the levy should contribute more to the schools themselves. He said, "If they really want to impact this school district, tell companies like Mosaic and Triumph Foods who donated all of this money for the yes side to forgo their tax abatements. And then they’re not going to put a huge burden on the backs of citizens in this community moving forward."
Johnny Kampis is an investigative reporter who has recently worked for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation and Watchdog.org. Over the course of his nearly 20 years in journalism, he has been published in such outlets as the New York Times, Time, Fox News, and Daily Caller.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ St. Joseph News-Press, "School tax committee raises nearly $50,000," October 12, 2017
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Dillon, Pat," accessed November 3, 2017
- ↑ St. Joe Channel, "SJSD Tax Levy Campaign Urging Voters to "Move Forward"," October 11, 2017
- ↑ GuideStar, "Form 990," accessed November 3, 2017
- ↑ GuideStar, "Form 990," accessed November 3, 2017
- ↑ GuideStar, "Form 990," accessed November 3, 2017
- ↑ NonprofitVOTE, "Nonprofits and Ballot Measures," accessed November 3, 2017
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