Legislators vote down 1 of 2 proposals to help Chiefs remain in Jackson County

Leaders in Jackson County shut down one of two proposals designed to help the Kansas City Chiefs fund a stadium project.

Monday, the Jackson County Legislature voted 8-1 to stop working on a proposal to ask voters to approve a 1/8th-cent sales tax for 25 years.

Leaders estimated the tax would’ve generated about $400 million for the football team to renovate GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

The team announced it was exploring leaving its home of more than 50 years in April when voters rejected a similar sales tax question to fund stadium projects for the Chiefs and Kansas City Royals.

The county legislature is still debating a separate ordinance to put a different sales tax proposal before voters in November.

As it is written, the proposed ordinance asks voters to approve a 3/8th-cent sales tax for 40 years to benefit the Chiefs.

These are the same terms voters rejected in April, but under April’s proposal, the Chiefs and Royals would’ve split the roughly $2 billion collected through the tax. This proposal gives all the money to the Chiefs.

Legislator Sean Smith plans to submit an amendment to Ordinance 5861 in the coming weeks.

In June, Kansas leaders supercharged the state’s STAR Bond program in hopes of attracting the Chiefs and/or Royals to relocate across the state line.

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