[CPEO-BIF] Missouri to audit Brownfield Remediation Tax Credit program

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Schweich pledges audit of Brownfields program

BY TIM LOGAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
August 1, 2012

Missouri's Brownfield Remediation Tax Credit program is long overdue  
for a closer look, the state auditor said Wednesday, in the wake of a  
Post-Dispatch investigation that uncovered cost overruns and weak  
oversight on the cleanup of the former Carondelet Coke site in south  
St. Louis.

The auditor's office has not reviewed the brownfields program - which  
funds cleanup of polluted sites - since 2002, shortly after its  
creation, when Claire McCaskill was auditor. Current auditor Tom  
Schweich said he wants to audit it in his first term, but couldn't  
say exactly when because of a tight office budget.

"It is my plan to audit it during my term," he said. "That's all I'll  
say."

The Post-Dispatch investigation found that the cost to taxpayers for  
Carondelet Coke nearly doubled, to $12.3 million, when more pollution  
was found at the former coal gasification site. Schweich compared the  
project to ones he saw in a recent audit of the Missouri Quality Jobs  
tax credit, which, like brownfields, is also run by the state's  
Department of Economic Development.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/building-blocks/schweich- 
pledges-audit-of-brownfields-program-but-can-t-say/article_ddeddb64- 
dbf3-11e1-8029-001a4bcf6878.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

_______________________________________________
Brownfields mailing list
Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org