Here's the complete version of the Missouri Capitol Notebook that ran this weekend in The Kansas City Star.  

By JASON NOBLE and KIT WAGAR

The Star’s Jefferson City correspondents

   Among the stops for Kansas City officials visiting the Capitol this week was a Senate committee hearing, where lawmakers considered a tax break intended for the Black Heritage District.

   The legislation presented at the hearing, introduced by Sen. Yvonne Wilson, a Kansas City Democrat, would allow cities to create sales tax-free zones.  Wilson and Kansas City officials want to establish such a zone bounded by Ninth and 29th streets and Troost and Prospect avenues — the city’s historically black neighborhood, which has become largely blighted.

   Dropping sales taxes would stimulate economic growth in an area now dominated by vacant storefronts and absentee landlords, said City Councilman John Sharp.

   “We can’t maintain a viable neighborhood without viable retail,” Sharp told the committee.

   The response from lawmakers was a bit chilly.

   Sen. Jason Crowell, a Cape Girardeau Republican, expressed concern that bars or strip clubs could move in to take advantage of the tax break.

   Sen. Victor Callahan, an Independence Democrat, asked why the city couldn’t use existing economic development tools to rehab the neighborhood. He chastised the city for using tax increment financing for brand-new developments like Briarcliff in the Northland.

   Responding to Callahan’s comment, City Councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks said existing tools couldn’t fix the neighborhood’s problems.

   “TIF has not worked. Other incentives have not worked,” Sanders Brooks said. “We need something new that will keep revenue in Missouri.”

  Wilson also introduced a constitutional amendment this week to allow the legislature to create tax-free and reduced-tax zones within cities.

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   The Senate debate over whether to repeal Missouri’s limits on campaign contributions generated reactions ranging from shame and disappointment to satisfaction and pride.

   But perhaps the most interesting reactions came from Republican Sen. Gary Nodler of Joplin. First, Nodler said it was entirely appropriate for lawmakers to be in tune with their political contributors. That’s why they contribute, he said.

   The current system allows people to give money to promote action by government that leads to the result they want, Nodler said. Public financing of campaigns severs that connection between lawmakers and likeminded contributors, he said.

   “Why is the mindless support that (stems from public financing) somehow more ethically pure than purposeful political support?” Nodler asked.

   Later, several senators were criticizing conservative political financier Rex Sinquefield, who last year set up and funded 100 separate fundraising committees so he could get around the current law that limits contributions to $1,350 to each statewide candidate. Under the law, each committee is considered a different person and each can give the maximum amount.

   Nodler disputed the notion that it showed that Sinquefield was deliberately evading the campaign finance law. On the contrary, Nodler said. By recognizing the loophole that allowed him to set up 100 different committees, Sinquefield was demonstrating how to follow the law to the letter.