By Ray Hartmann, St. Louis Insider
March 29, 2023
The entire St. Louis region has come together with “a unified voice” to speak out on a matter of vital interest to all: The election of Michael Browning.
Who?
You don’t need to know. What’s important here is that this unknown fellow will be on the ballot next Tuesday for the new 9th Ward seat of the Board of Aldermen. That means he’s the only hope of preventing the election of Alderwoman Tina “Sweet T” Pihl, the incumbent of the old 17th Ward.
That matters dearly to the business elite in St. Louis. Pihl has been the only member of the Board of Aldermen with the courage to expect rich and powerful business interests to play by the same rules as everyone else in St. Louis when it comes to tax breaks and related development issues.
That’s unacceptable to Greater St. Louis Inc. (GSL). As the self-proclaimed guardian of the region, GSL is not in the habit of tolerating dissenting voices to its favored project and priorities.
Pihl did precisely that last year when she attempted – in vain – to require the all-powerful Cortex development to abide by the rules (for everyone else) on the matter of tax-increment financing (TIF). Long story, short: Cortex had two of its 20-year TIFs expire, and rather than be subjected to reapplying, as the law provides, it demanded and received renewal of those tax breaks – without even providing details of the projects. Among other things.
The blank checks were unprecedented. They were also unchallenged by everyone except Pihl, whose impressive background as an MIT-educated development expert who worked for decades in far-more sophisticated Denver is not appreciated so much here.
Pihl’s experience with master planning and serious development strategies did not prepare her for the cold realities of St. Louis politics. Here, there is no plan. And before one talks about strategies, one must state where one went to high school.
GSL has no higher priority than supporting Cortex – a wondrous asset to the city and region, but one that is struggling with vacancies in its evolved role as a commercial landlord. If you mess with Cortex, you’re messing with GSL.
And when that happens, it’s simple: GSL puts out a political hit job on you. That’s why 21stCentury St. Louis PAC, owned by GSL, just maxed out Browning – an unknown and untested candidate for the Board of Aldermen – with two $2,600 campaign donations in the current election cycle.
And based on some recent Tweets from McPherson, the smart political blog of Editor Jack Grone, the PAC has been bombarding 9th Ward residents recently with mailers pushing Browning as “ready to tackle our biggest challenges.”
GSL can say whatever it likes about Browning, who certainly may be a fine person. And perhaps he isn’t a complete unknown to GSL and Cortex: He’s an employee of Washington University, for which Cortex is essentially an extension. That might be coincidental.
But this isn’t about some guy no one has ever heard of. It’s about payback for Pihl for daring to offend the civic powers that be. It’s about sending a loud-and-clear message to local politicians about what happens when you don’t play ball with the big boys.
To be clear, when I say that GSL has put out a political hit job on Pihl, the implied comparison to the mob needs to be clarified. For one thing, no one’s accusing GSL of criminal activity.
Secondly, the mob’s more subtle.
GSL’s need to control development in the city is directly related to its status as the only central civic organization in the nation operating a for-profit commercial real-estate business. That would be the Arch to Park Equity Fund, LLC.
As I wrote about repeatedly at The Riverfront Times, this for-profit company – which self-promotes as a benign civic benefactor innocently offering “patient capital” to worthy projects – is completely unaccountable to the public. Operating under GSL’s roof, it is the perfect vehicle for shielding from public view any salaries, ownership details, contracts, or business interests that GSL would prefer to keep secret. Or not. The point is no one knows.
GSL is a not-for-profit organization for which at least a modicum of public accountability should be sacrificed in exchange for its tax-exempt status. According to its Form 990 filed with the IRS last year, its mission is as follows:
“Greater St. Louis Inc. brings together business and civic leaders to create jobs, drive inclusive economic growth and increase the St. Louis metro area’s global competitiveness. We speak with a unified voice, lead with a bold agenda, and act as one metropolitan region.”
Unstated, it seems, is the corollary function of speaking with a unified voice as a metropolitan region against any public official who doesn’t bow down to the invincibility of GSL and its business and civic investors. Thus, the political hit job on Pihl.
This brings us to a couple of more pressing questions: Exactly what is GSL doing with a political PAC that tosses out maximum campaign donations to local politicians like trainers feeding fish to the seals at our Zoo? Can we expect similar efforts to place a thumb – or perhaps a full fist – on the political scales of other municipalities within GSL’s vast region?
Even if GSL must maintain such a PAC – which is debatable – its political giving should be confined to candidates in Missouri and Illinois state government whose actions might impact the St. Louis region. A better approach would be to leave such giving to its members.
For now, GSL’s 21st Century St. Louis PAC is an active player – and a big one – in city politics. A who’s who of progressive politicians received maxed-out contributions, including Mayor Tishaura Jones, Aldermanic President Meghan Green and a host of prominent Aldermen.
Of course, they’ll all say that such major contributions have no impact whatsoever on public policy. Fine. But wake us up when something goes down over the objection of GSL and its chairman, the untouchable Enterprise CEO Andy Taylor. Until then, it can be assumed that GSL’s investors made a fine investment.
Perhaps there’s one silver lining for St. Louis in this troubling story. Republicans who run the state government regard GSL’s local beneficiaries as radical leftists who are part of a movement to destroy our cities.
To that end, they’re persistently advocating new ways to disrespect the local autonomy of St. Louis – uniquely – by seizing control of its police, circuit attorney’s office and any other local function they can get their hands on. All in the name of protecting Missouri from being taken down by “those people” in St. Louis.
They’ll be relieved to learn that the city is still being run by the rich white guys.
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Ray Hartmann’s St. Louis Insider: After 45 years of speaking out on St. Louis issues at the Riverfront Times (RFT) and on radio and TV, I get to do it here at Substack. We’ll see if I’ve learned anything. I look forward to interacting with you.
https://rayhartmann.substack.com/p/st-louis-business-elite-puts-out
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Credit: Ray Hartmann and Substack
