Sunday, Mar. 28, 2010

Holbrook says study, not mayors, turned him away from STAR bonds backing

By BETH HUNDSDORFER AND GEORGE PAWLACZYK

State Rep. Tom Holbrook, D-Belleville, said it was a study commissioned by metro-east mayors regarding STAR Bonds legislation that caused him to pull his support for the bill -- not a the possibility that the mayors were going to pull their political support for him.

Holbrook withdrew his support of sales tax and revenue, or STAR, bonds during a news conference last week by area mayors who oppose a bill that would help pay for a $1 billion, 650-acre University Town Center in Glen Carbon.

"Lightning strike me dead and take my firstborn that no mayor asked me to step down," Holbrook said.

Columbia Mayor Kevin Hutchinson, president of the Southwestern Illinois Council of Mayors, said the group never talked about calling for Holbrook's resignation and said its contacts with Holbrook were very professional.

Hutchinson said the mayors were firm in their efforts to defeat STAR bonds, including funding the economic study into STAR bonds that Holbrook said caused him to pull his support.

In the last six weeks, St. Jacob Mayor Ray Muniz, the mayors council's vice president, said at least 25 mayors made about 100 visits to Springfield to lobby against STAR bonds.

"I've never seen anything like it," Muniz said. "So many mayors came together and so many came out and said this is bad policy."

STAR bonds would have paid for the University Town Center project, a retail and entertainment center in Glen Carbon. Bruce Holland, president of Holland Construction, headed the development group, which included partner John Costello, the son of U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello.

The mayors were concerned about the loss of sales tax in their already cash-strapped municipalities and came out almost a year ago against the measure, Hutchinson said.

Holbrook supported the measure, he said, because he favored the estimated 8,100 jobs it would create.

"We are totally for development. We aren't against that," said Collinsville Mayor John Miller. "We are for anything that brings jobs and tax dollars into the community. We just think that everyone should be on a level playing field."

But now that Holbrook changed his mind, Fairview Heights Mayor Gail Mitchell said he's willing to forgive and forget.

"I am planning on giving a speech next week thanking him for changing his mind," Mitchell said. "It's behind us now. Let's move on."

There were other mechanisms available to stimulate the economy, Hutchinson said, and an Illinois Department of Revenue study showed this would hurt the area's economy.

"My mayors were against it. After this study, their concerns were so great that I thought that it outweighed the additional job creation and I supported my mayors," Holbrook said.

Holbrook's not convinced of some of the assertions made in the mayor's study, but he said he's "not going to debate that report. That's the business side of it. Politically, I am supporting that mayors."

And Hutchinson, Mitchell, Muniz and Miller said they will let bygones to be bygones.

"Just because you disagree about one issue doesn't turn you into enemies," Hutchinson said.

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State Rep. Tom Holbrook, D-Belleville, said he was not proceeding with a bill he is sponsoring in the Illinois House that would create "STAR" bonds in Illinois. He joined fellow state lawmakers Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville, Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Decatur, and several area mayors and officials from Madison and St. Clair counties during a press conference at Fairview Heights City Hall. - Derik Holtmann/BND