Amid increasing talk that Missouri officials are readying a stadium offer to Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman despite all the other bidders having dropped out, state representative Mike Jones dropped this on Facebook yesterday:
I have recently learned that Mayor Quinton Lucas is seeking to direct approximately $500 million in Kansas City taxpayer funds through the KC Port Authority for the Kansas City Royals. This proposal would move forward without a public vote, and efforts are being made to keep the plan out of public view.
No sourcing at all from Jones, and Mayor Lucas immediately denied he had any such designs on sneaking through public money without a public vote, promising that he would put any stadium funding plan before the city council for approval. That didn’t satisfy Jones, however, who said he’ll introduce legislation to require a public referendum — of voters, not just councilmembers — before any state expenditure of more than $100 million on a sports facility.
Requiring a public ballot isn’t a death knell to stadium plans: They’re still approved by voters a little over half the time. But that’s still a way lower winning percentage than they have in legislative bodies — and given how things went at the polls the last time Sherman tried to get state tax money, the question of who gets to decide on any Royals subsidies is likely to be a big deal in any Kansas City stadium talks. If nothing else, Jones going public about the risk of an end run around public oversight puts public oversight squarely into the discourse, and that can never be a bad thing for the remaining fans of democracy.