I’m being punished for not posting anything to the site yesterday by all the news happening today, right? Anyway, so this also happened:
There will be no vote this fall on a Chiefs-only sales tax measure. By a vote of 5 to 4, Jackson County legislators on Monday defeated an ordinance that would have put a quarter-cent sales tax measure on the November general election ballot.
If you’re scoring at home, that’s the revised sales-tax measure that Kansas City councilmember Manny Abarca introduced last week to fund about $300 million worth of a Chiefs stadium renovation. The vote then was 5-4 in favor, and yesterday it was 5-4 opposed, and the application of advanced mathematics allows me to determine that somebody switched sides in the interim, but the Kansas City Star coverage doesn’t report on who that was. It does report that the Chiefs owners did not support the ballot measure proposal, which seems bizarre, but maybe they think they have a better shot at getting approval for stadium subsidies that don’t require a public vote? Come on, somebody allegedly in the business of journalism, can you share some hints? KCUR? KMBC? No? Well, fine then.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas did post on Facebook:
The Chiefs will be playing in Kansas City, Missouri for a generation to come.
The Royals will be playing in Kansas City, Missouri for a generation to come.
Don’t get distracted by the day-to-day sausage making. Good work is getting done to ensure a positive future for all.
Sure, maybe? Not getting distracted by political posturing is always a good plan, but Lucas here is clearly doing political posturing of his own, so who knows. A generation from now we’ll look back at this time and think either “Wow, remember when people thought the Royals and Chiefs were really going to move if they didn’t get some crazy amount of public money from K.C.?” or “Wow, remember when people thought that the Royals and Chiefs might not get some crazy amount of public money from K.C.?” or “That Quinton Lucas guy had as bad a crystal ball as that 1970s Montreal mayor.” My bet, based on past history, would probably be on Door #2, but past performance is no guarantee of future results, though sometimes it rhymes.
My speculation: The Chiefs didn’t want this to go to a vote so soon after their last L, and got the politicians to keep it off the ballot.
The Chiefs might want a ballot measure at a later date, or they might want to find a way to get free money without a public vote — either is preferable to going back to voters so soon after losing a few months ago.
Or perhaps the people of Jackson County found out about a story The Guardian published last week depicting the Chiefs’ tolerance of criminality and misogyny. The Guardian is a British “quality daily” that has a US online edition.
I’m 100% sure that had nothing to do with it.
Also that piece was a bit ridiculous. It counted smoking pot as a serious moral transgression.
Didn’t see that one coming…
But first instinct is to imagine that the reason they didn’t want this one to go through is that they think/know they will get even more money by waiting.
We, as a society, cannot abide billionaires not getting welfare from poor & middle class people.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson can consider a $2 billion stadium for the 31-101 White Sux, but can’t find enough quarters in his couch to save the Chicago Greyhound station.
In fairness to the White Sox, the Greyhound station has fewer home wins. Not many fewer. But a few.
Sean Smith was the legislator who changed his vote. County Executive Frank White would have vetoed it anyway. The team was interested in this for an Arrowhead refurb but got cold feet when the reality of facing voters without White’s blessing.
Ah, thank you! That makes more sense than the non-explanation in the news coverage.