County schedules April referendum on giving Royals and Chiefs $500m in exchange for we’ll get back to you on that

The gambit worked: Three days after the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals ownership put out a joint statement vowing “their commitment to remain in Jackson County” if the county put a stadium funding referendum on the April ballot and voters approved it, the county legislature voted 8-1 yesterday to schedule the April vote. If passed by voters, it would extend the county’s 0.375% sales tax surcharge for 40 years, providing an estimated $500-700 million worth of future tax kickbacks for the two teams to use on new or upgraded stadiums. After the vote, Chiefs president Mark Donovan hugged legislative chair DaRon McGee, saying, “Hell of a job, man.”

It was a hell of a job in part because what exactly county residents will be voting on giving half a billion dollars to in April remains very much a pig in a poke. Royals owner John Sherman hasn’t announced yet for sure where he would build a stadium in Jackson County; Chiefs owner Clark Hunt hasn’t declared what he would do with the money at all; and neither owner has committed to lease terms beyond the general statement that they wouldn’t move (for some unspecified time) and would “alleviate” the county’s insurance payments on its stadiums. Would the team ownerss get property tax breaks by having the county own the stadiums? Who would collect naming rights money and concert revenue? Would they be asking for any additional subsidies from the city and state? Would there be any state-of-the-art clauses giving the teams the right to move early if Kansas City didn’t sink more money into upgrades down the road? These would all be good things to know before people are asked to cast ballots, and right now we know none of them.

County executive Frank White, who has been pointing out all these missing details for a while now, could still veto the referendum measure, though the legislature could also overrule him with a two-thirds majority, which it appears to have right now. The deadline for officially scheduling the April 2 referendum isn’t for another two weeks, so expect to see lots of jockeying between White and legislative leaders before then to hash out some more concessions; following yesterday’s vote White specifically mentioned the need for a “strong and enforceable Community Benefits Agreement” and “a commitment that both teams maintain their front offices and training facilities in Jackson County for the duration of the lease,” and also that “I always believe that when you’re moving into something this dynamic, then you ought to have a lease agreement in place before you put it on the ballot,” so there’s lots to haggle over. Tune back in by January 23 to see if three more county legislators will join White in holding Sherman’s and Hunt’s feet to the fire at least a little bit, or if voters will really be asked to approve $500 million in subsidies before knowing what they’d be getting in return.