County to override Frank White’s veto, Chiefs and Royals will get their April sales tax vote after all

I was all set to hit publish on a post about how tomorrow’s deadline for setting an April sales-tax referendum for Kansas City Royals and Chiefs stadium funding following Jackson County Executive Frank White’s veto was going down to the wire, when word came in that two county legislators have switched their votes to override White:

Two of the four county legislators who last week said they were inclined to sustain County Executive Frank White Jr.’s veto, which would have kept the stadium tax off the spring ballot, now say they will vote to override that veto, The Star has learned.

Legislators Jalen Anderson and Sean Smith confirmed in text messages that they will put out statements that explain their reasoning ahead of Monday afternoon’s legislative meeting, when the override vote is set to take place.

What caused Anderson and Smith to flip hasn’t yet been revealed. The Royals and Chiefs owners issued a joint statement on Friday saying they absolutely agreed to White’s requests that leases and community benefits agreements be put in place first — just not in any contractually binding way:

“The teams believe that the Chiefs taking over the Truman Sports Complex and Royals building a world-class ballpark and surrounding privately-funded development will only increase our already robust local presence and impact…”

“The teams have agreed to continue to pay base and percentage rent in accordance with the rent provisions in the County/Sports Authority’s Letter of Intent…”

“We are encouraged by the process that is occurring that has engaged stakeholders from all over Jackson County to draft a meaningful and robust Community Benefits Agreements that will span the duration of the Leases, and are eager to be a part of those conversations.”

In other words, sure White said he wouldn’t approve a vote until leases and CBAs were in place, but the team owners have every intention of agreeing to those eventually, so why not go ahead and vote first on giving them half a billion dollars in sales tax money, surely they wouldn’t use that as leverage when negotiating leases?

The Jackson County legislature was set to meet today at 3 p.m. to take up the issue, but that’s presumably off, or at least moot, with Anderson and Smith switching sides. More on this, and on news of any pet programs the duo may have gotten support for in exchange for allowing the referendum, as we learn more.

UPDATE 1:48 pm ET: The Kansas City Star has updated its story to include this:

The county legislators were subjected to intense lobbying from the teams’ supporters. The Royals and Chiefs ran ads over the weekend telling people to contact their legislators and tell them that “Jackson County deserves to vote.”

Still nothing from either Anderson’s or Smith’s social media accounts, unless this is some kind of code.

UPDATE 4:33 pm ET: The county legislature has now officially overridden White’s veto, putting the sales tax hike, which would generate a projected $500 million for the teams, on the April 2 ballot. Also Anderson and Smith have both issued statements explaining their reversal as being in response to a nonbinding “letter of intent” that the teams sent to the legislature on Thursday — which was, if I’m not mistaken, before the two initially backed White’s veto, so clearly something else changed between then and now. Anderson also cited “overwhelming outreach from constituents and community stakeholders, asking me to allow them to vote on this issue,” so either the teams’ “let them vote” campaign had an impact, or it provided cover for the pair to say they’re just giving the people what they want.