With these new incentives in place, Bombardier came calling, giving Missouri an opportunity to show it could step up
to the plate and play in the big leagues. And everyone involved knew this was a now-or-never, one-time-only opportunity.

Said Rep. Ron Richard, a Joplin Republican and the bill’s chief supporter in the House: “This is a once-every-25- years deal.” Get this right and Missouri would truly, at long last, be open for business. Blow it and “we might as well put a
danged stop sign on the state of Missouri.”

Steinhoff pulled together a diverse group of leaders from the worlds of business, finance, government and economic development—dubbed Team Missouri—who started working months ago on the Bombardier proposal. “When you are looking at a project like this, there are literally thousands of questions. Team Missouri members did a good job of asking the right questions and spent an extraordinary amount of time getting answers to all the potential questions, so that when we took this to the legislature, we would be prepared for their questions.”

Laws and Sausage

And, yes, there were questions. The
initial Bombardier legislation offered up
to $880 million in tax credits and contained
fewer safeguards for the state. Some media reports painted a picture of rural lawmakers out to sabotage the deal. Many lawmakers balked at the size of the deal. Others were put off by what they perceived as a level of secrecy about specifics of the proposal.

More than a few local economic development and business leaders feared that Jefferson City “still doesn’t get it” and
would blow this opportunity—and with it, any hope of attracting other megadeals any time soon.

Local business leaders like US Bank President and CEO Mark Jorgenson and construction giant Terry Dunn, President
and CEO, J.E. Dunn Construction Group, made public appeals through letters and columns in the press. At Ingram’s Platte County Economic Development Assembly, several community leaders, envious of the massive retail-andentertainment
tourism Mecca that has sprung up around the Kansas Speedway, feared that Bombardier could become “NASCAR all over again.” Platte County leaders, once burned already, were nervous as they listened to the litany of concerns coming out of Jefferson City.

Steinhoff and the supporters in both chambers, though, contend that the process worked exactly the way it should
have, and that the end result is almost exactly what they had hoped for.

“I don’t think the state of Missouri can just hand out blank checks,” Terry Dunn acknowledged after the scaledback
legislation had been approved. “There needs to be a level of measurement and understanding that allows some degree of objective analysis of whether the creation of certain jobs is in the best interest of the state. Otherwise you lose that ability of transparency. Is the final legislation different than how it first appeared? Yes. But it’s a good offer on the table,” Dunn added.

Platte County Economic Development Director Pete Fullerton said, “What was most important was for Missouri to step
up and compete. At the end of the day, that’s what legislators were able to do. They figured out what they could stomach
in the way of incentives. It was important to come up with something that everyone could live with.”

Steinhoff said it was more than just something lawmakers can live with.

“Looking back the last few months, I think it was an excellent process,” Steinhoff said. “This is something that always had to follow two ongoing tracks—open dialogue with the company, while crafting broad language that gives us room to negotiate and create sound legislation. There are a lot of people asking questions as you move through those two tracks.”

“Asking questions” doesn’t equate to “contentiousness” in Steinhoff’s mind. “That’s how it has to work, how it’s
supposed to work,” he said. “Over the years we have gained the confidence of the General Assembly. I know it made
some people in Kansas City nervous at times, but it was a good process. It’s great to sit there and have a lawmaker
debate you face to face,” and there were literally hundreds of one-on-ones with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“The thing is, most of them supported
it. When they asked questions, it wasn’t that they didn’t support it, they just wanted specific concerns addressed,” Steinhoff said.

Even the staunchest supporters say the legislation was improved by the process.

"I never thought we wouldn’t pass it,” Sen. Shields said. “It had to go through the process. It’s a better piece of legislation than what we started with.”

Even if Bombardier chooses Montreal over Kansas City, Missouri is still a better place to do business today than it was a few months ago, proponents argue.

“Even if the deal doesn’t happen,” Rep. Richard said, “we’re now on record as showing that we’re willing to go after
big projects. We’re on par with every other state and country in that we can attract this level of investment and this number of jobs. I understand that Boeing is looking at us now. They never thought we would be a factor before now. This is a deal that makes us a player in the global economy.”