BY: JASON HANCOCK
Missouri Independent
A $1.5 billion stadium funding plan aimed at convincing the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals to stay in Missouri was signed into law Saturday afternoon by Gov. Mike Kehoe shortly before his trip to France on a trade mission.
Kehoe signed two other bills on Saturday: one providing $125 million in aid for communities hit by severe weather and another spending around $200 million on various construction projects across the state.
The bills were the product of a two week special legislative session called by Kehoe last month designed, primarily, to counter an offer by Kansas to fund up to 70% of the construction costs for new stadiums for the Chiefs and Royals if they moved across the state line. That deal expires at the end of the month.
Missouri’s counter offer would allocate state taxes collected from economic activity at Arrowhead and Kauffman to bond payments for renovations at Arrowhead and a new stadium for the Royals in Jackson or Clay counties.
The cost is estimated at close to $1.5 billion over 30 years.
Both teams have expressed interest in leaving Missouri when the lease on their current stadiums expire in 2030.
“We called legislators back to Jefferson City because the stakes were too high to wait,” Kehoe said in an emailed statement announcing he signed the stadium funding deal.
The disaster relief provisions in the legislation address both the devastation of the May 16 tornado in St. Louis and the damages suffered by other Missourians in storms and flooding earlier in the year. The aid was required due to uncertainty about the federal response to the tornado.
Kehoe asked President Donald Trump for a federal disaster declaration for the tornado on May 25 and for April 29 storms in Scott on May 19. The president didn’t officially declare a disaster, opening the door for federal aid, until June 10.
The governor was expected to quickly sign the bills, which passed earlier this week, because he will be in Paris on Monday for his first international trade mission. During Kehoe’s absence, Lt. Gov. David Wasinger will serve as acting governor.