Kansas lawmakers could handle STAR bonds for Chiefs, Royals in special session
TOPEKA, Kan. — The clock struck double zeros on efforts to approve new STAR bond legislation. The bill being fast tracked in the Kansas Legislature would be used to help lure the Kansas City Chiefs and or the Royals to Kansas.
The chief of staff for Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, Will Lawrence, released a statement Tuesday night before state legislators ended their 2024 session.
“Governor Kelly will veto the tax plan agreed to in Conference Committee Report for Senate Bill 37,” he said. “She will call the Legislature back into legislative session if this is the tax plan sent to her desk.”
Early Wednesday morning, Kansas Republican Senate President Ty Masterson said if a special session is called, a number of different things can be brought up. Masterson was being asked about whether Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) bonds, plus the bill banning gender affirming care for minors could be brought up at that time.
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The STAR bonds bill version of the insurance bill that was gutted was never voted on by both chambers to send to the governor. The bill banning gender affirming care was vetoed by Kelly, but the effort to override her in the Republican controlled State House of Representatives failed.
“That’s the risk of a special session,” Masterson said that morning. “As a matter of fact, we would be incentivized if we come back to deal with the issues. If she vetoes anything that we pass in main session, it just gives us a new opportunity to take another swing at it.”
Wednesday afternoon, Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas said he was not surprised by the renderings that came out the night before from the sports architecture firm Manica, envisioning what a new Chiefs stadium could look like near the Legends Outlets and Kansas Speedway in KCK. Wednesday, the Chiefs confirmed they had no involvement in what was released Tuesday night though.
“I think responsible jurisdictions, and Kansas City, Missouri’s one of them, we built an airport, we just built a sports stadium, we have done a lot of work in the past right?” Lucas said in an interview with reporters Wednesday. “I think that we will continue to be professionals as we go through this process, and that means that, ‘Yeah, It’s not a press release all the time, or it may not be new renderings,’ but it doesn’t mean there’s not work being done.”
Lucas supported the Jackson County sales tax vote in April that would have kept the Chiefs in Kansas City, Missouri and the county for at least another 25 years and the Royals in the city and county for at least another 40. The vote failed though by 16%, more than 21,000 votes.
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“What that means is that the teams will have lots of people who entertain them with many renderings,” Lucas continued. “Whether they are accurate, scale, based on any real cost measure, nobody knows. I didn’t see that yesterday, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to do it.”
Lucas also said the city will try to make sure both the Royals and Chiefs know they’re supported by the city, and there could be a plan to support them in the future, whether that involves a vote of the people or not.