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Kansans Support This Proposal
Proposal Support
Voters in Jackson County, Missouri, recently voted against a proposal that would have funded improvements to the Kansas City Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium. The Kansas City Chiefs are now looking to secure their home in the region for generations to come. The Kansas Legislature is considering a proposal that would bring them to Kansas and keep them in the area. Do you support the Kansas City Chiefs leaving Missouri and moving to Kansas?
Funding Support
The proposal would use STAR Bonds - the same program used to help fund the Kansas Speedway - to bring the Kansas City Chiefs to Kansas and partially fund a new stadium without any new cost to taxpayers. Do you support using STAR Bonds to secure a new home for the Chiefs in Kansas?
Get The Facts
Myth: The Professional Sports Franchise STAR Bond Legislation imposes new and higher sales taxes on Kansans.
Facts:
The Professional Sports Franchise STAR Bond Legislation DOES NOT impose ANY new OR higher sales taxes on Kansans.
STAR Bonds simply harness the sales tax revenue generated from economic activity at the new stadium and surrounding designated area – revenue that otherwise wouldn’t exist without the project.
STAR Bonds are the ultimate “user pay” model for financing infrastructure – sales taxes generated within a defined district are utilized to retire the STAR Bonds.
Myth: The Professional Sports Franchise STAR Bond Legislation means Kansas taxpayers will fund 100% of the stadium with developers and franchise owners having no skin in the game
Facts:
NOTHING in the bill requires Kansas taxpayers to fund the entire project.
Any stadium built under the Professional Sports Franchise STAR Bond Legislation will be a public/private partnership with the franchise owner contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to the project.
Myth: The STAR Bond program is notorious for defaults and failures around the state putting local communities and state taxpayers on the hook for billions over decades of repayment.
Facts:
STAR Bond projects are NOT notorious for defaults. And the risk for failure is NOT on the taxpayers, but rather the bondholders. The taxpayers will never have to repay these bonds.
Wyandotte County is home to the most successful STAR Bond developments in the state– the Kansas Speedway and Sporting KC, with nearly $1.5 billion in additional investment well underway.
Adding another professional sports franchise would only enhance public traffic to this area, attract millions of new fans to Kansas every year, and make this area even more successful, which benefits all of Kansas.
Myth: Kansas City, Kansas has some of the lowest income citizens in the state, imposing new and higher sales tax on them will harm them and divide communities.
Facts:
Again, the Professional Sports Franchise STAR Bond Legislation DOES NOT impose ANY new OR higher sales taxes on Kansans.
Under the bill, sales taxes will not be captured unless communities through their locally elected officials opt in to pledge the future revenue generated by the economic development and use of the stadium under existing sales taxes.
Locally elected officials of affected cities and counties are best positioned to make these decisions for their communities and should not be prohibited from participating in an opportunity for perhaps the largest economic development project in our state’s history.
