Jackson County legislature to allow stadium tax vote in April

Jackson County residents will officially be able to weigh in on the future of the Royals and Chiefs stadiums on April 2.

The county legislature voted on Monday 7-2 to override County Executive Frank White’s veto, and a 40-year extension of the stadium sales tax will be on the spring ballot, leaving the decision in voters’ hands.

Four county legislators said last week that they were inclined to support White’s veto, which would have kept the stadium tax off the ballot, but two of them -- Jalen Anderson and Sean Smith -- changed course over the last four days.

“While there are many additional details still to be finalized and put into various lease documents and Benefits Agreements, the level of detail and the concessions the teams have made are sufficient for me to vote to overturn the veto of the County Executive,” Smith said in a statement. “The County Executive deserves significant credit for achieving some great concessions from the teams. These concessions will save our taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of the agreements.”

Anderson wrote in a separate statement that the teams setting broad outlines for the agreements helped him reach his vote, as well as “overwhelming outreach from constituents and community stakeholders, asking me to allow them to vote on this issue.”

Jeanie Lauer and Megan Marshall were the two ‘no’ votes Monday.

Now with the ordinance on the ballot, there is still plenty of work to be done to see the extension of the 3/8-cent sales tax passed by voters. If approved, the Royals and Chiefs will stay in Jackson County for the foreseeable future, and the public money will go toward building a new Royals ballpark downtown and renovating Arrowhead Stadium at the teams’ current home, the Truman Sports Complex.

“We’re thrilled with the result today,” Royals president of business operations Brooks Sherman said Monday. “We very much appreciate the Jackson County legislators agreeing to put this measure on the ballot for the Jackson County voters to decide on April 2, and we very much look forward to that. We’d also like to thank Shawn Foster and the [Jackson County] Sports Complex Authority for the work they’ve done to get us to this point. This is step one of a long process for us. We think we have a great project for Jackson County, the city of Kansas City, the region, for that matter.

“And we look forward to sharing those details with you very soon. Again, there’s a lot of work to do. But you can bet we’re ready to get after that work and get it done on behalf of the citizens of Jackson County. Very much look forward to it.”

Chiefs team president Mark Donovan said both teams will have to share the details on what they envision for their respective stadiums -- the Royals’ location, which has still not been decided on, and the Arrowhead renovations.

“Obviously before [April 2], we’re going to have to share a lot more of what we’re doing,” Donovan said. “We’ve been strategic on exactly when we wanted to share that information. Felt like we wanted some things to be solidified before we did that, so that’s our next step. There will be a lot coming out between now and the second, by both us and the Royals.”

With the veto, White had hoped to get more time to negotiate agreements with the teams on how the tax dollars would be spent. Four votes would have been enough to keep the ordinance off the ballot. But negotiations over the weekend were enough to override the veto.

The Royals and Chiefs started an ad campaign over the weekend asking Jackson County fans to call their legislator, ask for a public vote “and let your voice be heard.” Several businesses around downtown Kansas City also put together joint statements supporting the ballot measure.

Monday was a major step forward in the Royals’ vision to build an estimated $2 billion stadium and surrounding ballpark district downtown under a public-private partnership.

But the Royals have yet to decide upon a site for the new stadium. A new lease agreement has not been signed. Also unresolved is a community benefits agreement to ensure affected residents and workers share in the benefits of the project.

A letter of intent signed Monday builds on the teams’ current leases, which do not expire until 2031, and it also has concessions that the teams have announced previously, including giving up the county’s parks property tax levy, the insurance on the stadiums and the demolition of Kauffman Stadium once the Royals have moved.

White was happy to get those concessions but wanted more, including several of the unresolved issues fully resolved before putting the tax extension on the ballot. He said work now begins to get as much information to voters about the teams’ plans before April 2.

“Now that it’s been voted on to be on the April ballot, I think what we have to do is work hard with the teams to make that happen,” White said. “We’re not here to say we want the Royals and Chiefs to leave Kansas City and Jackson County. That’s not why we’re here. We’re just here to say there’s seven years left on the lease, we should have time to really get in and hammer things out and not be in a rush to get things done and go through what we’ve just gone through the last two weeks with everybody coming in and putting pressure on the legislature to make decisions. …

“We’re just hoping that there will be enough information available by election day that the voters can know exactly what they’re voting on.”