KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Kansas City Chiefs are coming to Kansas City, Kansas as state leaders and team leadership announced the plan Monday.
Kansas is issuing Sales Tax and Revenue or STAR Bonds to pay for more than half of the $3 billion project. The state issues STAR Bonds to private investors and pays them back with new tax revenue.
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Republican State Senate President Ty Masterson said one of his requirements for approving the stadium deal as the Chair of the Legislative Coordinating Council (LCC) was that it wouldn’t lead to higher taxes. Masterson talked to FOX4 on Tuesday while he was in Andover, just a day after he was in Topeka for the big announcement.
“Nobody. Worst case scenario, nobody buys the bonds, the bonds don’t get sold, the project doesn’t happen,” Masterson said when asked who’s on the hook if there isn’t the private interest in the buying of these bonds.
“Not at all, I’m excited,” he said when asked if that concerned him at all that that’s a possibility.
“I think there’s going to be general excitement. I think they’re even going to get a good rate for their bonds.”
FOX4 took that comment to Washburn Political Science Professor Bob Beatty in Topeka. He says the nearly $2 billion in STAR Bonds that will be issued is a bit of an experience with the Chiefs stadium going up somewhere near I-70 and I-435 in Wyandotte County.
“That being said, there’s an adage that basically goes around where you don’t bet against the NFL, Beatty said.
“It has become a global phenomenon, and from the salaries, and the costs of stadiums and the amount of money that’s generated, and yes, even now the cache of Taylor Swift and celebrities, it’s not necessarily always a rational economic decision.”
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Two and a half hours after the Beatty interview, Kansas Department of Commerce Marketing and Communications Director Patrick Lowry sent FOX4 a statement.
“The excitement surrounding bringing the Chiefs to Kansas and the new economic opportunities the stadium, facilities, and mixed-use developments will create, are sound reasons to be confident in the success of this project,” Lowry said.
The STAR Bond District appears to cover all of KCK, not to mention Western Johnson County.
“I would say that with all humility, bringing the National Football League to Wyandotte and building the facility that we’re going to build is going to drive development,” Chiefs President Mark Donovan said Monday in relation to a question about the STAR Bond District.
“We’re confident of that.”
The Chiefs will pay $7 million a year in rent for their stadium, but most of that will go into an RMMO (Repair, Maintenance, Management and Operations) Fund. The government owner of the stadium, which will be determined by the state legislature, will not keep the rent.
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