JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (WGEM) - Missouri lawmakers are making a last-ditch effort to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals from moving to Kansas. A plan from Gov. Mike Kehoe was debated and voted on Tuesday.
The Missouri House approves the governor’s Hail Mary plan to incentivize the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals to stay in the state. This plan was truly introduced in the fourth quarter, now well into the final week of the legislative session. It’s not a home run just yet, the Missouri Senate needs to approve the plan before Friday at 6 p.m. when lawmakers will leave the Capitol for the year.
This plan only benefits NFL and MLB teams, allowing them to make upgrades to existing stadiums or construct new stadiums. The plan allows teams to get a bond up to their current state tax revenue; that comes out to nearly $29 million for Chiefs and $26 million for the Royals. It also allows a 10% tax credit up to $50 million, and only up to half of the project.
There is a clawback trigger put in to protect Missouri. If a team relocates its headquarters or training facility to another state, the money will have to be returned.
Neither party is united on these late game adjustments. At the end of the day, more Republicans voted against it than Democrats.
As Kansas City Rep. Chris Brown explains, the governor is rushing this plan because Kansas is negotiating “aggressively” with the teams. The incentives Kansas lawmakers enacted to draw the teams over expire next month.
“It’s in our DNA,” Brown said. “The Chiefs and the Royals are literally a part of us to some degree. They are a fabric woven within the state of Missouri.”
A spokesperson for the governor’s office told our Missouri Capitol Bureau support from Kansas City, Missouri, residents will be just as important as a fair and equitable incentives package from the state.
“Gov. Kehoe has been working for months to develop a competitive package to keep both the Royals and the Chiefs in Missouri where they belong. He views these projects as important economic development retention projects,” said Gabrielle Picard, Kehoe’s communications director.
But with the introduction in the bottom of the ninth_,_ minority leader and Kansas City-native Rep. Ashley Aune feels rushed.
“It’s come to a head right now, and unfortunately it seems like Missouri’s waited until the 11th hour to do something about it,” Aune said.
The plan has the support of Kansas City Mayor Quinten Lucas. A statement his office shared reads, “Kansas City strongly supports the legislation presented today by Governor Kehoe. The Governor’s legislation will ensure the Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs are Kansas City’s teams today and will remain Kansas City’s and Missouri’s teams for generations to come.”
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