Jackson County Legislators are on the clock.
The clock is ticking in Jackson County, Missouri and for County Legislator Manny Abarca in his quest to keep the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs franchise in the county. Abarca wants to change a sales tax law to fund a renovation of the team’s present stadium. Abarca seems to be separating a current sales tax that pairs the Chiefs’ stadium with Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals’ home stadium. Abarca wants a 20-year Chiefs’ lease extension and reducing an existing stadium improvement sales tax to one-quarter of a cent and that would go into funding of the facelift of the football facility. Abarca has succeeded in getting what he wants. Jackson County politicians amended an old proposal during a meeting voting 5-4 vote in favor of Abarca’s proposal with the 20-year lease extension and the sales tax reduced to one-quarter of a cent. But that is only step one, the county legislature needs to vote on the measure again to get before the voters in November and the lawmakers have to do it by August 27th.
The Chiefs’ franchise owner Clark Hunt wanted a renovated stadium in Jackson County but on April 2nd, Jackson County residents overwhelmingly voted against extending a sales tax that went to pay down the debt of old construction costs at the two stadiums. State legislators in Kansas passed a bill that would finance up to 70 percent of the cost of two new stadiums for pro sports franchises. The legislation targeted Hunt’s business and Royals’ owner John Sherman’s business. Kansas lawmakers are mulling over a proposal that would see STAR bonds used to help pay 75 percent of the cost of building two stadiums in Kansas. Additionally, sports gambling and lottery gaming and sales tax revenue from businesses in the stadium development districts would cover bond debt. The Kansas City stadium game drama continues.
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