The Missouri House advanced a bill that would require greater public scrutiny of tax-exempt bond assistance being sought by private companies along with increased financial disclosure by such firms.
Under the bill, such a project would be the subject of a public hearing announced by a notice that would warn of the negative impact on a municipality’s credit rating.
Startup companies also would face greater disclosure of their financial information and that data would be shared by local and state agencies.
The measure is one in a series prompted by a failed artificial sweetener plant in Moberly.
The city issued $39 million of bonds backed by project revenues and the city’s appropriation pledge to help finance the plant, which was being built by the Chinese company Mamtek US Inc.
The company abandoned the plant before it was constructed and Moberly last year refused to make good on the appropriation pledge. The deal is the subject of litigation and probes by various regulators.
