Missouri state senate committees advanced several bills as part of the special legislative session called by Gov. Mike Kehoe to address proposed stadium incentives for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals, as well as tornado relief for the St. Louis area and elsewhere.

A Senate fiscal oversight committee passed the stadium incentives by a 6-3 margin after several hours of testimony on the legislation that would authorize state payments on bonds for up to 50% of a project’s value, in addition to a $50 million tax credit.

The legislation passed the House in the waning days of the regular legislative session last month but stalled in the Senate.

What You Need To Know

  • By a 6-3 vote, the Senate committee on Fiscal Oversight approved a bill that would authorize state incentives for stadium projects to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals in Missouri

  • The state would make bond payments on stadium construction projects for the teams in the amount of their annual state sales tax revenues, for up to 50% of the project's total value. The state would keep new sales tax revenue generated by the projects. Lobbyists for the teams told the panel that the offer was competitive with Kansas', which expire at the end of June

  • Lawmakers in another panel also advanced funding for $25 million in housing relief for Missouri tornado victims 

  • The full Senate could debate measures passed Tuesday on the floor Wednesday

Missouri’s package is an attempt to compete with the Kansas, which has offered up 70% of payments for new stadium costs. Kansas’ offer is set to expire at the end of June.

Lawmakers who wanted to know if the work being done would be enough to keep the teams in Missouri didn’t get a direct answer Tuesday, beyond hearing from team lobbyists that Missouri’s bid would be competitive. 

“I would tell you the Kansas proposal is better in the respect that we don’t need a local vote and in the respect that it would cover up to 70% of the construction. But it’s new construction. It is also not going to be the loudest stadium in the world. It won’t have the allure of Arrowhead (stadium). It would be new. But the (Kansas) proposal itself as presented with numbers, appears to be better,” said Rich AuBuchon, the Chiefs’ lobbyist. 

Pressed by Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, Royals lobbyist Jewell Patek conceded that the team would have to make a decision in the next few weeks without knowing if there will also be local financial support coming from either the city of Kansas City, Jackson County, or Clay County, where officials said there have been discussions about a possible stadium site within the past two weeks.

Jackson County voters rejected a sales tax vote in April 2024 that would have funded stadium improvements for both teams. The earliest voters would return to the polls would be in November.

“We’ll have to make a decision based on our best estimates of what those communities would have to offer and what our likelihood of those, if they require a vote of the people, passage to be made so we are evaluating those proposals at the same time we’re evaluating this,” Patek said. 

The bill, which also increases and extends an amateur sports tax credit used by cities across the state to attract NCAA tournaments, Olympic trials and similar events, also includes a homestead tax credit of up to $5,000 for certain victims of severe weather.

The bill could be debated on the Senate floor as early as Wednesday, along with other measures passed Tuesday by the Senate appropriations committee that approve funding of $25 million to support tornado victims in Missouri in need of money for supplies, home repair and rent or mortgage assistance. Another bill passed unanimously by that panel would fund construction projects coming from funding sources outside of the state’s general revenues.

On the floor, there could be bipartisan pressure on Gov. Kehoe to expand the legal boundaries of the call authorizing the special legislative session in order to get the stadium bill across the finish line. Conservatives have introduced property and income tax reform legislation that they say must happen if billionaire sports team owners are going to get help. Kehoe favors the gradual elimination of the income tax but told Spectrum News Monday afternoon he wasn’t sure it would get accomplished in this session.

Democrats, including State Sen. Brian Williams, of University City, called the $25 million for tornado victims “beyond a slap in the face” and “one of the most offensive proposals” during Tuesday’s appropriations committee hearing. Williams is also skeptical about what sort of federal relief will be on the way. 

The Trump administration recently approved disaster declarations for March and April storm damage in Missouri but has not signed off on a request for the May 16 storm, which killed 7 statewide and did at least $1.6 billion in damage in the St. Louis region.