Jackson County’s referendum on a 0.375% sales tax surcharge extension to raise $500-700 million towards Kansas City Royals and Chiefs stadium projects — the former of which would still need another $650-750 million from the city and/or state — wraps up voting next Tuesday, and local media outlets are starting to give it their full attention. Just in the last couple of days we’ve learned:
- Royals execs released a list of promises to the Crossroads neighborhood over the weekend, including assisting with “rent support, relocation assistance, tenant improvements, and payroll coverage to help with employee retention.” Chartreuse Saloon owner Jill Cockson immediately dismissed it as “a bullet list, nothing about that is binding whatsoever.” Community benefits agreement expert Julian Gross said the same of the teams’ broader benefits proposal, calling it “more like a press release than anything approaching a CBA.”
- The group KC Tenants says to vote no, because a downtown stadium would drive up rent in the surrounding Crossroads district and the sales tax hike would cost the average county taxpayer $115 a year for the next 40 years.
- County legislator Manny Abarca says to vote yes, because “opportunity rarely knocks twice.”
- The Royals and Chiefs owners say they’ve provided proposed stadium lease agreements to the county, but county officials haven’t made them public yet.
- The “no” campaign is being outspent more than 20-to-1 by the teams’ pro-tax committee, which has so far spent $3.2 million.
The whole thing still looks way too close to call. This is almost certainly reading way too much into a single quote, but one person who attended Abarca’s pro-tax town hall last night told Fox4KC, “As of right now I’m still undecided. I thought I had it down pat voting for the stadium but there are other issues involved — housing, economy, people’s jobs and parking of course.” That anyone is still shifting from “yes” to “undecided” at this late date is, if nothing else, a sign that the dueling campaigns are still having an impact, so a lot can still happen between now and next Tuesday.
And what happens on Tuesday could have a big impact on sports subsidies nationwide: There’s a strong “I’ll have what he’s having” theme to sports stadium and arena campaigns, and being able to point to the Royals in particular getting $1 billion in public money for a stadium would make it easier for other teams to demand the same. Not that that $1 billion would be guaranteed if next week’s ballot measure passes — the city council and/or state legislature would still need to vote on additional funds. But this is likely to be the only time the public will get a chance to vote on whether to put their money into building new playthings for Royals owner John Sherman and Chiefs owners the Hunt family, so it’s going to do a lot to set the tone for what comes after.
ADDENDUM: Just realized I left out economists saying the Royals’ claims of job creation from their new stadium are “completely made-up, concocted numbers” and a “bunch of hot air,” but you probably knew that, even if you might be surprised who one of the economists is. (The other economist was.)
Owner speak to English dictionary:
rent support = Lobby to raise rents in the district to minimum level that would support ticket buying and/or suite rental among local residents
relocation assistance = Bulldoze any old buildings that might make the shiny new stadium look downmarket. Especially apartment buildings
tenant improvements = Evict the poor people and bring in higher income residents that might actually be able to afford tickets/PSLs
payroll coverage to help with employee retention = This is payroll coverage for the teams, obviously. Not for local businesses.
Fortunately 60% of Tempe voters were smart enough to vote no on the Coyotes scheme. The Coyotes and the construction groups that would have benefitted outspent Tempe First by a wide margin. With a direct sales tax on the ballot, hopefully Jackson County voters are smart enough to vote no. Why should Jackson County shoppers and businesses support fans across Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri, especially Johnson County.
And many of us are quite tired of seeing the “Yes” ads everywhere. I have always wondered if there is a oversaturation limit that actively starts hurting your cause. I am a hard “No” but if I was undecided I think the carpet bombing might cause me to vote No purely out of irritation.
As a resident of Jackson County, we hear the ads on the radio and see them on TV, even on some of the streaming services. For about the past week, we have been receiving almost daily flyers and mailers in the mail. Yesterday, we received flyers for and against the sales tax.
Coming off the heels of the property tax fiasco where most county residents saw their property taxes double or worse due to what is looking like a very flawed “update” to the records by an out-of-state contractor, a lot of Jackson County residents aren’t too eager to pony up more tax money to the county, especially when it’s basically going to billionaires and not to the the roads, schools, etc. The level of trust in the leaders of Jackson County isn’t too high right now and Sherman and Hunt haven’t been very forthcoming with information about their projects other than the bells and whistles.