Black, poor students disproportionally impacted by tax breaks for developers, report says
By SHERI GASSAWAY
Assistant Editor
Students in St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) have been disproportionally harmed by economic development tax abatements given to St. Louis city businesses when compared to St. Louis County’s 23 districts, according to a new report.
The report, “Overarching Disparities: How Black and Poor Students Are Disproportionally Impacted by St. Louis-area Tax Abatements,” was unveiled last week at an education summit hosted by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 420, the union representing teachers and staff members at St. Louis Public Schools.
The study, commissioned by the union, compared tax abatement losses in 24 St. Louis-area districts from 2017 to 2022. Overall, school districts and their students lost $260 million over the six-year period and more than half that number – $167 million – was lost in the SLPS District.
‘TAX ABATEMENTS WORSEN INEQUALITY’
“Thanks to a new government-transparency rule, we can see in great detail how tax abatements worsen inequality,” said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, the national non-profit Pro-Labor research group who released the study. “Public education is the cornerstone of equal opportunity and economic development, so these tax abatement harms are perverse.”
The analysis found the SLPS District lost $1,634 per student a year to tax breaks during the study period. By contrast, 13 suburban school districts lost less than $80 per student.
‘RACIAL AND CLASS DISPARITIES’
“Comparing the two largest school districts vividly explains the racial and class disparities,” the report says.
SLPS have 17,000 students, of whom 88 percent are Black or brown, and 100 percent qualify for the free or reduced price meals – a measure of poverty. The next larger district is Rockwood with 20,000 students – 75 percent of whom are white, and just nine percent qualify for free or reduced meals.
“Yet St. Louis children lose $1,634 per year to tax abatements while Rockwood students lose just $18 per year,” the report says. “That is St. Louis students lose 91 times more than Rockwood children.”
After SLPS, the second hardest hit group of students are those with special needs, according to the study. The Special School District of St. Louis County loses $1,148 per student a year.
‘NOT OPPOSED TO TAX ABATEMENTS’
“We are not opposed to tax abatements but believe they should be limited, targeted and even,” said Byron Clemons, Local 420 spokesman. “We understand how important it is that fire fighters and other first responders benefit from local taxes.”
Recommendations for state and local policymakers from the study include:
- Shielding all school district funding from tax abatements.
- Giving SLPS veto power on the St. Louis Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Commission.
- Using TIF to create public housing for the 2,000 to 4,000 homeless students in SLPS.
LOCAL LEADERS RESPOND
Local leaders are already responding to the results from the report.
Mayor Tishaura O. Jones “has publicly disavowed St. Louis’ historic lack of standards for doling out TIFs and tax abatements at the expense of the City’s children” and her administration has not enacted any new TIFs since entering office in 2021, according to a statement last week.
Meanwhile, Aldermanic President Megan Green told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the board is continuing to refine the city’s requirements around tax incentives to reduce harm to the district and students.
“We appreciate the work of Good Jobs First and are reviewing their recommendations to determine whether state or local interventions are needed to make these recommendations a reality, she said.”
To read the entire study, visit goodjobsfirst.org.
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