Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe put forward a plan to help fund stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals, but the plan didn’t pass before the General Assembly’s annual session ended. Neil Nakahodo The Kansas City Star
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has made clear he will call a legislative special session focused on the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. That’s the easy part.
Now for everything else.
The special session, expected to begin in early June, will prove challenging for Kehoe and other supporters of a proposal to allow state officials to negotiate public aid packages for new or upgraded stadiums for the two teams that could be worth up to 50% of the project costs. While getting the measure through the General Assembly is certainly possible, it is not inevitable.
Several separate but interconnected developments over the past two weeks destabilized the legislature and cast a pall over the regular session’s final days. Those conflicts will likely resurface when lawmakers arrive back in Jefferson City.
First, lawmakers have directed bipartisan anger toward House Republican leaders after they refused to hold a vote on a $500 million budget bill for capital improvement projects across the state, including nearly $50 million for a new mental health hospital in Kansas City.
The failed funding measure stands in stark contrast to the speed at which Kehoe has tried to advance the stadiums plan. Some lawmakers also want the special session to include aid for tornado victims in St. Louis.
Second, Democrats are furious with Republicans for breaking a filibuster in the Missouri Senate to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to again ban abortion in the state, just months after voters narrowly overturned a ban. Republicans also broke a filibuster to repeal sick leave protections approved by voters last November.
And third, some lawmakers have problems with the stadiums package and how Kehoe handled it. They either condemn the proposal as a favor for corporate special interests or hold deep concerns about how the governor unveiled it at the 11th hour and then tried to ramrod it through the legislature in the final week of session.
It all adds up to a potentially volatile special session.
“Governors seem to like these special sessions for some reason,” said Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. “They usually go like crap.”
Kehoe will hold a news conference Tuesday morning to announce details of the special session, his office said.
Kehoe and Missouri lawmakers face a ticking clock. After Jackson County voters rejected a ⅜-cent stadiums sales tax in April 2024 that would have guaranteed the teams remained in the county – and, therefore, Missouri – Kansas lawmakers passed a supercharged bonding plan that authorizes public financing for up to 70% of the cost of new stadiums.
The offer expires at the end of June, though top Kansas lawmakers could vote to extend it.
Decades of academic research have consistently found that stadiums and arenas are not major drivers of economic development. But many elected officials often embrace them, portraying stadiums as significant economic development projects.
Kehoe’s plan marked the most ambitious public effort by Missouri to keep the teams in the state since the Jackson County vote. It relies on bonds and tax credits that could pay for up to half the costs of upgrading or building new stadiums.
“It’s an important piece of economic development and we definitely will be looking at a way to try to get back before the General Assembly,” Kehoe told reporters at the end of the regular session.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe speaks with reporters after the legislative session. Kehoe has said he plans to call a special session focused on stadium funding for the Chiefs and Royals. Missouri Governor's Office
The proposed program offers funding for stadium development by covering annual bond payments up to the amount a team generated in state tax revenue in the year prior to when it took effect. The program would dedicate funds for bond payments up to the amount of revenue “historically generated by the teams.”
The proposal would set a minimum project cost of $500 million to qualify and stadiums must have a seating capacity of more than 30,000. A new Royals stadium would cost more than $1 billion. A new Chiefs stadium could cost up to $3 billion. When the team brought forth a plan to renovate Arrowhead Stadium a year ago, the Chiefs projected that cost at $800 million.
The measure would allow the teams to apply for the aid but the state would have to sign off on each project. The proposal would also require contributions from local governments.
“I do think that this is a very, very unique situation in terms of the proposal we have before us on the stadium bonds, and I’m hoping we can come again to a place of compromise on this,” Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, said.
“I think that’s, as a legislator, I think it’s important to be the adult in the room, to recognize everything that we have on the table and to move forward in a manner that serves Missourians and our state well,” she said. “And that’s what I hope to do during the special.”
An aerial view of Truman Sports Complex Star file photo
Democrats want budget bill revived
Nurrenbern and other Democrats insist the special session must include space to approve funding included in the failed budget bill, called HB 19. As governor, Kehoe enjoys wide latitude to set the parameters of the special session.
Nurrenbern said she won’t support a stadiums package without a revival of HB 19. “That has to be part of it,” she said.
Other lawmakers want St. Louis tornado relief included as well. A tornado tore through a strip of the St. Louis region on May 16, killing five people and inflicting upwards of $1 billion in damage. Kehoe has asked President Donald Trump for a federal disaster declaration.
Kehoe indicated to reporters last week, prior to the tornado, that he’s open to including topics in the special session outside of stadiums. “I think it’s fair to say everything is on the table of what that special session might look like,” he said.
House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, said the budget bill will be a “big topic of discussion,” along with disaster relief.
“I also think that the aftermath of the tornado in St. Louis is going to be a huge topic of discussion,” Aune said. “You know, I think that a lot of members’ districts were hit really hard on Friday.”
The Missouri House chamber. Tim Bommel Missouri House of Representatives
While Republicans can theoretically pass legislation without any Democratic votes, Democrats may exercise more influence than usual in the stadiums debate.
Many Democratic lawmakers hail from the Kansas City area, giving them an outsized voice in discussions and making it more likely that lawmakers from elsewhere will defer to them. Some Republicans also oppose stadium funding, raising the odds that Kehoe will need Democratic votes.
And Senate Democrats have vowed to slow down the chamber in retaliation for Republicans breaking their filibusters over abortion rights and sick leave protections at the end of the regular session.
“From this point forward, if I have anything to say, everything is going to be so hard around here, it’s gonna be very hard,” Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, a St. Louis-area Democrat, told reporters at the end of the regular session.
Republican opposition to stadiums package?
The House approved the stadiums package in a 108-40 vote. The Senate never voted as senators became bogged down in the abortion fight, but some evidence of GOP opposition still emerged.
“We’re going to give floor time...to pass a special interest tax credit,” Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, said on the Senate floor during the final week of session. “Well, I’m saying we’re not going to do that.”
Last year, when the Kansas Legislature first took up its stadiums proposal in the final days of its annual session, the measure failed to advance amid the tight turnaround and competing priorities.
Kansas lawmakers then returned weeks later for their own special session, where they passed a modified version of the plan after a public hearing that included testimony from lobbyists for the Chiefs and Royals.
Aune wants a similar approach. While she has said securing the teams’ future in Missouri is worthy of a special session, the top House Democrat has accused Kehoe of attempting to skip past vetting the Missouri proposal and gathering public input.
If Kehoe calls a special session for the first or second week of June, hearings could potentially be held as early as the final week of May.
Hough, the Republican state senator from Springfield, said he thinks most senators remain on good terms. Hough opposed cutting off the filibusters, saying the Senate should operate differently than the House, where the majority party regularly ends debate.
Still, he’s unsure how the Senate will operate during the special session.
“I mean, it’s a mess … I don’t know what we’re going to walk back into,” Hough said.
The Kansas City Star
913-735-3689
Jonathan Shorman is The Kansas City Star’s lead political reporter, covering Kansas and Missouri politics and government. He previously covered the Kansas Statehouse for The Star and Wichita Eagle. He holds a journalism degree from The University of Kansas.
Kacen Bayless
The Kansas City Star
(816) 234-4207 234-4207)
A reporter for The Kansas City Star covering Missouri government and politics, Kacen Bayless is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri with an emphasis in investigative reporting. He previously covered projects and investigations in coastal South Carolina. In 2020, he was awarded South Carolina’s top honor for assertive journalism.