Nixon names Martinez economic development director
by Kelsey Volkmann and Christopher Tritto
Incoming Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon named Bryan Cave lawyer and tax credit guru Linda Martinez his economic development director Tuesday.
Martinez’s practice focuses on development tax credits, one of the cornerstones of Nixon’s economic recovery plan. At the law firm, she also focuses on development, public-private partnerships for the creation of public facilities, museums, sports and entertainment complexes, and industrial, manufacturing and multifamily housing facilities, according to the law firm’s online biography of Martinez.
Nixon acknowledged the difficulty of the job, particularly with the loss of significant employers in the region, including Anheuser-Busch, which recently laid off more than 1,000 in St. Louis following its takeover by Belgian InBev. "The key is to take assets that you have and assist them in growing," he said at a news conference Tuesday morning at City Sprouts, a children's boutique in University City.
As far as the proposed federal economic stimulus package, Nixon said, "I am looking at upping Missouri's direct contact with D.C. ... I want to make Missouri is the state that uses the dollars as wisely as possible."
And taxes aren't part of his own state economic plan, Nixon said. "We need to be putting more money in people's pockets and not taking it out."
Martinez, 54, has been a member of the Bryan Cave law firm in St. Louis since 1982, specializing her practice in financial and development transactions. Her clients and projects have included BJC HealthCare, Kiel Center Partners, the Garden District Commission, Grand Center Inc., Washington University Medical Center, Marriott International, the St. Louis Blues Hockey Club, McDonald Douglas Corp., the St. Louis Science Center and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
Martinez's experience includes serving as bond counsel and counsel to underwriters, credit enhancers, borrowers, trustees and issuers on tax increment financings, nonprofits, hospitals, housing, hotels, airports, small issue industrial development bonds, municipal bonds and other forms of tax-exempt financing.
She also has counseled large developers and institutions on legislative matters and regulatory implementation of such matters, including development of the historic preservation tax credit, authorizing free transferability of certain tax credits and the use of tax increment financing based on state sales taxes.
The daughter of a Mexican doctor and a St. Louis nurse, Martinez took premed courses at the University of Missouri-Columbia. But instead of medical school, she chose law school at Washington University. Martinez clerked for Bryan Cave while in school and accepted a job there when she graduated.
The Business Journal named Martinez one of St. Louis' most influential minority business leaders in 2005.