Lawmakers want the Chiefs and Royals to come to Kansas, but a stadium plan fizzled

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Some Kansas lawmakers see a chance to lure Kansas City's two biggest professional sports teams across the Missouri border. But an effort to help the Super Bowl champion Chiefs and Major League Baseball's Royals finance new stadiums in Kansas fizzed over concerns about how it might look to taxpayers.

Members of the Republican-controlled Legislature pushed a bill Tuesday that would have allowed Kansas officials to authorize at least $1 billion in bonds to cover the entire cost of building each new stadium, paying the debt off with tax revenues generated in the area over 30 years. But GOP leaders didn't bring it up for a vote before lawmakers adjourned their annual session early Wednesday.

Some critics derided the plan as corporate welfare. Others were receptive but didn't want to pass the proposal until the Legislature approved a broad package of tax cuts for their constituents that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly would sign — which didn't happen either.

Legislators' work on a plan began in earnest behind the scenes after voters on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area decisively refused earlier this month to extend a local sales tax used to keep up the complex housing the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium and the Royals' Kauffman Stadium for more than 50 years.

The bill's biggest champion, Kansas House Commerce Committee Chair Sean Tarwater, a Kansas City-area Republican, said supporters want to give the two professional sports teams another option should they contemplate leaving Kansas City, which he said would be devastating to both states.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” Tarwater said. “We need them to stay in the metroplex.”

The idea isn't dead yet.

Kelly and her staff signaled Tuesday that she is likely to veto the last tax package lawmakers approved, cutting income, sales and property taxes by a total of almost $1.5 billion over the next three years. Lawmakers expect Kelly to call a special session of the Legislature to try to get lawmakers to pass a tax plan that she'll accept — and they could consider the stadium financing proposal then.

“We just need a little time on it — we’ll be OK," said Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita Republican. "I mean, we’re serious about trying to incentivize the Chiefs to come our direction.”

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson told KSHB-TV in Kansas City on Tuesday that his administration would do everything that it can to keep the Chiefs and Royals in Missouri. His state's lawmakers are in session through May 17.

"We got time to try to work on some ways to try to see what we can do to help with keeping them here, and that’s our main goal,” Parson said.

The Kansas proposal would allow the bonds to finance 100% of the construction of each of two new professional sports stadiums with at least 30,000 seats. State and local officials would have a year to sign off, and the teams would be on the hook if local tax revenues weren't enough to pay off the bonds.

“It was just a concern of running it before we gave real tax relief to our constituents — kind of that juxtaposed look of what appears to be corporate welfare before you’re getting tax relief to the people,” Masterson said after deciding against having a Senate vote.

Before the local sales tax vote in Missouri, the Chiefs wanted to use their share of the revenues to help pay for an $800 million renovation of Arrowhead. The Royals planned to use their share to help finance a new, $2 billion-plus ballpark district that would be part of a larger nationwide wave of sports construction.

The current lease lease on the two teams' complex lasts through Jan. 31, 2031. Royals owner John Sherman has said the Royals will not play at Kauffman Stadium beyond the 2030 season, the Chiefs are hopeful of remaining at Arrowhead Stadium.

“We’ll be in a situation where we go back to the drawing board,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told reporters last week. “I do feel very much a sense of urgency, and we will approach it from a broader perspective going forward.”

Backers argue that the Kansas plan is ideal because the money to pay off the bonds would come from new sales and alcohol taxes generated only when the area around each stadium develops. Also, professional players will have to pay income taxes to Kansas on the portion of their earnings made at the stadiums in Kansas.

But Americans for Prosperity-Kansas, a small-government, low-tax group that has long opposed the use of such bonds, also opposed the stadium financing proposal. The group is influential with Republicans and told lawmakers it would consider their votes in evaluating their records.

Critics have long argued that allowing the bonds to finance big projects represents the state picking economic winners and losers instead of the free market. The same kind of bonds have financed multiple projects, including NASCAR's Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas.

One northeastern Kansas lawmaker, Democratic Sen. Tom Holland, called the stadium proposal “economic development for millionaires.” He added that it’s “total foolishness” to have taxpayers subsidize the stadiums — either through taxes they pay when they visit or because the state forgoes revenues that would flow into its coffers.

Another northeastern Kansas lawmaker, conservative GOP Sen. Dennis Pyle, said: “We’ve got a lot of priorities in Kansas, and I’m not sure that’s one of them."

Other lawmakers were critical because the Legislature had no public hearings or debates before three senators and three House members met in public this week to hash out the details of the proposal.

“As much as I would love to see the Chiefs and the Royals both come to Kansas, this is a very large expenditure of tax money that merits careful consideration, not a last minute scheme,” said Democratic state Rep. John Carmichael, of Wichita.

Skretta reported from Kansas City, Missouri.

Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, right, R-Andover, speaks during a news conference with other Republican leaders, with House Speaker Dan Hawkins, left, R-Wichita, watching, following the Legislature's adjournment of its annual session, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Some lawmakers hope to lure the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals to Kansas with a plan to help them finance new stadiums. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, right, R-Andover, confers with his communications director Mike Pirner during a break in the Senate's session, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Lawmakers have adjourned their annual session without voting on a proposal to help the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals finance new stadiums in Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson attends a news conference with other Republican legislative leaders, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Masterson didn't bring a proposal to help the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals finance new stadiums in Kansas because of the opposition the idea faced. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas Senate Commerce Committee Chair Renee Erickson, left, R-Wichita, confers with House Commerce Committee Chair Sean Tarwater, right, R-Stilwell, during a break in the Senate's session, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. The two lawmakers have helped draft a proposal designed to assist the Kansas City Chiefs football team and the Kansas City Royals baseballs team finance new stadiums in Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

FILE - Clouds gather over Kauffman Stadium before a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Indians, on June 4, 2017, in Kansas City, Mo. Some Kansas lawmakers see a chance to lure Kansas City's two biggest professional sports teams across the Missouri border, but an effort to help the Super Bowl champion Chiefs and Major League Baseball's Royals finance new stadiums in Kansas fizzed over concerns about how it might look to taxpayers. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE- Fans fill Arrowhead Stadium as fireworks go off before an NFL football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos on Nov. 13, 2011, in Kansas City, Mo. Some Kansas lawmakers see a chance to lure Kansas City's two biggest professional sports teams across the Missouri border, but an effort to help the Super Bowl champion Chiefs and Major League Baseball's Royals finance new stadiums in Kansas fizzed over concerns about how it might look to taxpayers. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday in the latest public display of support for Ukraine by its Western partners, although deliveries of promised weapons and ammunition from NATO countries like Germany have been slow and have left Ukraine vulnerable to a recent Russian push along parts of the front line.

Annalena Baerbock renewed Berlin’s calls for partners to send more air defense systems, as Russia pounds Ukraine with missiles, glide bombs and rockets. Germany is the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States.

Ukraine’s depleted troops are trying to hold off a fierce Russian offensive along the eastern border in one of the most critical phases of the war, which is stretching into its third year.

Germany recently pledged a third U.S.-made Patriot battery for Ukraine, but Kyiv officials say they are still facing an alarming shortfall of air defenses against the Russian onslaught.

The Kremlin's forces have used their advantage in the skies to debilitate Ukraine's power grid, hoping to sap Ukrainian morale and disrupt its defense industry.

Baerbock, accompanied by Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, toured a thermal power plant in central Ukraine that was heavily damaged on April 11. In the plant’s scorched interior, workers of Centrenergo, a state company that operates the plant, were still scooping up rubble several weeks after it was hit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Kremlin’s forces are still focusing their efforts on the eastern Donetsk province and northeastern Kharkiv region, where explosive-laden Russian glide bombs are wreaking destruction on military and civilian areas.

“This brings us back again and again to the need for air defense — for additional defense systems that could significantly mitigate the difficulties for our warriors and the threat to our cities and communities,” Zelenskyy said late Monday on social media.

Zelenskyy claimed Ukraine’s forces are still in control of the contested areas, though Russia says it has captured a series of border villages.

It was not possible to independently verify either side's battlefield claims.

Baerbock had planned to visit Kharkiv on Tuesday but the trip had to be called off for security reasons, German news agency dpa reported. Almost 11,000 people have been evacuated from Kharkiv border areas since Russia launched its offensive actions there on May 10.

A Russian overnight drone attack hit transport infrastructure in Kharkiv city, the regional capital, damaging over 25 trucks, buses, and other vehicles, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Tuesday. Seven people were injured, he said.

Ukraine’s general staff said the frequency of Russian attacks in Kharkiv slowed on Monday, though fighting continued.

Russian troops are also conducting reconnaissance and sabotage raids in Ukraine’s northern Sumy and Chernihiv regions, shelling border settlements and laying more minefields, according to Dmytro Lykhovii, Ukraine’s general staff spokesman. The front line is some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) long.

Baerbock was due to meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been resisting appeals from Ukrainian officials to provide Taurus missiles, which are equipped with stealth technology and have a range of up to 500 kilometers (300 miles).

The German- and Swedish-made missiles would be able to reach targets deep in Russia from Ukrainian soil. But Berlin has balked at that prospect, saying that sending the missiles would bring a risk of it becoming directly involved in the war.

The restriction on not allowing Ukraine to fire at Russia has denied Kyiv the ability to strike at Russian troops and equipment massing for attacks on the other side of the border, a Washington-based think tank said.

“These U.S. and Western policies are severely compromising Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against current Russian offensive operations in northern Kharkiv (region) or any area along the international border where Russian forces may choose to conduct offensive operations in the future,” the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment late Monday.

Baerbock said in a statement that Ukraine’s prospective membership of the European Union is “the necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia’s illegal war of aggression.”

Ukraine has made “impressive progress” and must not let up in reforms to the judicial system, in fighting corruption and on media freedom, she said.

Germany will host a reconstruction conference for Ukraine next month. Rebuilding the country is predicted to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Geir Moulson contributed to this report from Berlin.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Police officers inspect the site of the Russian missile attack, with a dead body in the foreground, in the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 19, 2024. The missile hit a recreation area, killing five including one pregnant, and injuring 16. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

A woman cries as police officers inspect the site of the Russian missile attack that hit a recreation area killing five including one pregnant, injuring 16 in the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

Destroyed resort compound is seen from above after a Russian rocket attack near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 19, 2024. According to officials, several people were killed in this attack. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)