Hereby declare past stadium deal all steel.

Bet you Patrick Mahomes would be happy to be in Kansas.

I say you snooze, you live in Kansas signing off on a multi-billion dollar funding package to lure the chiefs and royals across the state line.

I think that is regrettable.

I think it's shortsighted that.

So what happens now?

Will Missouri punch back?

We're not just going to roll.

We're look, Kansas, come in here and take two major franchises out of our state.

We unpack the latest twists and turns in the ongoing stadium saga.

Plus, saying goodbye to one of the metro's best known art leaders and the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City, RSM Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlise Gourley, the Courtney as Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America, N.A.

Co Trustees, the restaurant at 1900 viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

It has been a huge week of news here in Kansas City.

And here to lift up the hold on the most impactful, curious and downright head scratching headlines is former star newsman Dave Helling, tracking the region's top political stories for KCUR news Brian Ellison.

He was the star's development reporter before becoming Mr. City Scene KC Kevin Collison now with this is a contributing writer to our digital newsroom Flatland and from the helm of our metro's newest newspaper, next page, KC Eric Wesson Stadium deal or steal this week.

Kansas signed off on a multi billion dollar funding package to lure both the chiefs and royals across the state line.

And the governor says she'll sign the measure.

Just think of that income tax coming to Kansas and not Missouri.

May I bet you Patrick Mahomes would be happy to be in Kansas.

He won't pay that earnings tax.

Missouri is kind of known for losing sports teams.

They lost the Rams, they lost the Scouts, they lost the Kansas City Kings.

We can't afford to have a team that generates this kind of economic activity leave the Metroplex.

I think it's shortsighted and I think the the re initiation of the border war between Kansas and Missouri long term will be bad for taxpayers in the Kansas City metro.

When I signed the border war truce with Missouri, it didn't include the chiefs.

All right, Dave Helling, so what happens now?

Does this mean the chiefs and royals are officially leaving?

No, not even close.

There are many, many details that have to be figured out and and blank spaces filled in.

As a matter of fact, the bill that passed sunsets at the end of June next year.

So there is a bit of a time frame.

It can be extended, but it officially sunsets in June of 2025.

So there is a time frame for negotiations with both teams.

But no one should doubt that this is a significant development in this long, long story of where our two professional Major League sports franchises play.

And the game is afoot, as they say, with a bit of a deadline ahead.

Brian, we're often told that Democrats and Republicans don't agree on anything.

They can't get anything done in politics these days.

But boy, wasn't this interesting.

You had Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly support this measure and getting it done.

They were out of there in less than 24 hours.

Right.

That was, I think, probably the most unanimous act of the Kansas legislature this entire year.

Having said that, what did they really agree to in there?

They agreed to sort of a conceptual idea that they might offer these bonds if the right agreement can be reached.

There's a lot as Dave said, there's a lot of details to be worked out.

And I think you'll remember that back when we were debating the stadium tax here on the Kansas City, Missouri side, there was a lot of support until they announced where the stadium was going to go.

Once you start putting the details in place, I'm not sure you're going to see that same level of unanimity even in Kansas.

Thanks to our friends at the Kansas Reflector News site, we now know that the day before that big vote in Kansas, the Kansas City Royals and their top executives met with lawmakers at a steakhouse in Lawrence.

Wined and dined them.

Eric And the three things that came out of them, according to the lawmakers that were there.

And I thought they were kind of interesting getting your comments on that.

One was, yes, we have three potential sites we're looking at in Wyandotte County.

They said that most royals ticket holders from Johnson County and here's the kicker, the team, quote, does not feel welcome in Kansas City, Missouri, right now.

Those are the words of a team that's using Kansas as a negotiating tactic or is ready to make that move.

It sounds like it especially they didn't feel welcomed.

I think the campaign where they call, you know, billionaires and they made them to seem like villains, I think that was probably the turning point.

Let me just say one other quick thing about the the the fine print and the agreement that was passed by the legislature.

It's now becoming apparent to me anyway, that the district around the stadium let's just for argument's say the chiefs, that district will not be just the stadium.

It may include all of the legends, all of the shops in Nebraska, Furniture Mart, Cabello's, all the outlets could be part of the district and the sales taxes from those businesses could be used for the stadium bonds.

The good news is it makes the stadium more affordable.

The bad news is that's actual taxpayer revenue.

That will be so Why was my governor of Wyandotte County so enthusiastic about it last week if he's going to lose out on sell, he could lose out on millions of dollars if he and it says, in essence, these taxes from these businesses will go to a cheap stadium and not to operations.

In the past.

Senator Haley on my radio program on the while county Senator Don County and his thing is the downtown stadium in the Fairfax district, that's where he believes that they could use an economic shot in the arm in that area.

So it's not all about diligence, is there?

But one other thing that I find interesting about this is it kind of seems emotional because some of the things that I hear and read people say and on social media and even the mayor say, you know what, hey, we've supported you all since the 1960s and this and that, that's emotional.

That's like you and your husband or wife or splitting up.

And they say, hey, you remember that time I fixed you breakfast?

You know, this is business.

This isn't emotional, is not personal.

It's business.

And they're looking at the best business deal for them.

A couple of reflections I wrote a column years ago that suggested a football stadium out by Village West and a downtown ballpark got my head handed to me.

But the big thing is, getting back to Dave's point, there's a history out at village west of that sales tax revenue being shifted.

First, it was implemented to build the speedway and then it was shifted to do the KC, the soccer team, the Sporting KC Stadium out there.

So they've had a history of being very opportunistic because that sales tax revenue being generated by Nebraska furniture Mart in particular is a firehose of revenues and there has been a long history of it being shifted from project to project as new opportunities come along.

Look, the very fact that we're having this conversation is means this has been a very good week for the Chiefs and the Royals.

We are seeing fans sort of dreaming about the possibilities.

What if it's here?

What if it's there?

A willingness to spend money that has given so much leverage that just a week ago the Chiefs and the royals did not have, including if they do really want to stay in Missouri, including if they want to stay at Arrowhead or in a newly determined downtown stadium location, they are in a much, much stronger position, not only because of the potential dollars from Kansas, but because of the public imagination around a possible move there.

So how is Missouri then responding to this newly passed Kansas stadium plan after previously saying he wasn't concerned about the royals and chiefs leaving the state?

Missouri Governor Mike Parson says this will now be his top priority in his final six months.

Well, look, we're going to be competitive.

We're not just going to roll.

We're not Kansas.

Come in here and take two major franchises out of our state without having some sort of package ourselves.

So what does that actually mean?

PARSON is leaving office in January.

What can they actually do between now and then?

Well, I think there is some chatter about a special session, perhaps in September in which Missouri might review its tools for keeping the chiefs and royals and or royals in Kansas City.

They do have a couple of advantages.

One of them is this neck, the star bonds.

And Kansas can only pay for 70% of the stadium.

That means the Chiefs would have to pay for the rest, a $2 billion stadium that means a $600 million investment by the team, which is double what they promised to spend in Jackson County.

It may be that Clark Kent says, You know what, I don't want to spend $600 million for a new stadium that far out.

So that's a bit of an advantage.

And there are other tools in the toolbox that Missouri might use.

I think we've all discussed around the table the big problem is some of those tools may require a vote of the people, and that's a pretty big hurdle.

I'd also, by the way, we do have candidates running for governor.

Mike Parson's not going to be here very much longer.

So they don't want to spend any money on sports stadiums.

Well, that's exactly right.

And also a very conservative caucus in the Senate that is not going to probably support this either.

Now, much could happen after the election, but if that special session does end up in September, which seems like is being seriously considered, it seems very unlikely to me that there's going to be support for now.

In the meantime, Jackson County lawmakers are taking another stab at keeping the teams.

County officials met this week to consider a new tax stadium question.

But their latest plan would only fund the Kansas City Royals or rather chiefs, rather, are not.

The royals.

Being considered is a 3/16 of a cent capital improvement sales tax that would go before voters in November.

Why only the chiefs then, Eric?

Because they're the ones winning right now and they're the ones that they're most afraid of leaving, although the city sees it differently, they think that the chiefs of stay, but the royals will leave.

So their priority in the city level is to keep the Royals here, whereas everybody else wants to keep the chiefs here because the chiefs are winning.

Jackson County lawmaker Manny Abarca said this week he's leaving off the royals because, quote, The city of Kansas City, Missouri, Kevin, would have more incentives available to offer the baseball club.

Is that true?

And what does Kansas City, Missouri, what are they able to provide that Jackson County could?

Well, you know, I dispute what Manny is saying.

And, you know, the city, number one, you need leadership.

We haven't seen it.

I mean, Mayor Lucas has been wringing his hands, but I have not heard from anybody that he's actually put together a concrete proposal.

Now, there has been a shift in the city to doing a lot of their development through the Port Authority.

The Port Authority is a state appointed agency.

It's not subject to some of the restrictions the city council has been putting on the other development agency.

So it's got a lot more freedom of operation.

Now.

They are also involved in building the deck over the highway, which is part of this, you know, grand plan for redeveloping downtown.

But, you know, right now, even though there was a lot of bold talk out of city hall right after the vote where you had Brian Plant saying we're going to take this thing over and you had the mayor saying we're going to take this thing over.

It's been crickets.

And from what I know from the royals and I'm not saying this is exhaustive research, they haven't got any kind of serious negotiations.

And the man now has another big distraction to deal with.

In addition to the stadium issue, he's just become a dad for a second time now.

Lucas releasing this pic this week of the arrival of Quinton Carter.

Lucas, the mayor, since he's now going to be working on a reduced schedule.

Brian That that is what he has said.

Although the mayor, the mayor works a lot of hours, puts in a lot of appearances around town.

So I'd be surprised if the if the new baby keeps him off the road for very long.

But but but obviously, as you know, as Kevin was saying, I think the reality is that the city does have some of those tax incentive tools along with the Port Authority areas where the the royals are less less likely to go back to the voters.

I think they're going to be trying to use all of those levers to try to get their way.

But why haven't we heard from the teams saying, you know, in Kansas immediately they sent a press release, the chiefs there saying, hey, thank you.

We look forward to working with this option.

The mayor puts everything on social media.

So why haven't we seen a letter from the Chiefs saying, hey, thank you, Mayor, for this option that you've given us, We're going to consider it.

We haven't seen anything from any I mean, we haven't seen any option presented by it because they don't have a negotiation.

Well, and the other thing is, you know, what would be really kind of a fascinating little twist, you know, getting back to the overall history of revitalizing downtown when Kay Barnes was mayor and they created the South Loop redevelopment that gave us the Power and Light District and a lot of other projects, they created special state legislation called Odessa.

Right.

And it did get the state involved in providing significant funding to help put the Power and Light district together that may be able to be dusted off and applied to this, although I have not again heard any concrete proposals coming out of City Hall.

Now, some people think this latest vote in Kansas is just a negotiating tactic for the chiefs and royals so they can win a better deal for Missouri.

But teams, of course, do believe 15 years ago, the Wizards committed to building Kansas City's first major League soccer stadium on the site of the former Baptist, the Mall.

Remember that?

Then all hell breaks loose when the team announces it's moving to Wyandotte County.

Tonight, a seismic shift, one that could move the Kansas City Wizards to Wyandotte County.

Wednesday, Wyandotte County, the Wizards inserted corporation entered into a tentative pact to bring the new Wizards stadium here to attractive land near Village West Development, home of the Kansas Speedway and lots of retail shops.

Shocking perhaps because this was the scene just months ago, the tearing down of Banister Mall and KCMO blueprints on paper etched in ink to build the same stadium on the east side.

The Kansas proposal is upfront cash and hours is paid to go overtime and anybody given a choice would prefer upfront cash.

That's the differences.

There's existing star bond revenue and that kind of wins the day in this capital market.

And what loses the day is the banister development likely.

And KCMO, I tell you how I feel.

I feel deserted.

Part of the deal that it was just going to be a big tax write off for you guys anyway.

So who says these things can't happen?

Teams do leave.

Kevin Yeah, well, actually not the first city.

I broke the story when they decided to go to Kansas, and the whole reasoning was, you know, again, they were trying to put together a tax increment financing plan to build the stadium, but Banister And that relied on a lot of retailers locating to what had been a failed retail site when that seemed to be dragging on.

Getting back to what Dave and I were talking about earlier, Kansas said, Hey, we've got this star bound program here out at Village West.

We're paying off the bonds early.

We got all these revenues that are going to be coming out of the sales tax revenues out of Nebraska for Rich.

Mark Miller, come on over here.

We'll just shift the gears and move the pipeline of funding to you guys.

So Kansas was ready to go because they had an aggressive program going on out there and the city did not have the mojo to get the incentives going.

Well, first of all, the flashback of seeing Mark Funkhouser and Larry Moore, I feel like I'm young again.

So watching that clip, it was a great thing to see.

I think that the royals and the chiefs are going to have to do a lot of work to make sure that the people in Wyandotte County are happy about this proposal because it does mean millions of dollars from their pockets going forward if the entire district includes all of the legends and other things.

And I'm not sure, you know, Eric talks about we haven't heard from the chiefs and the royals.

They've been horrible through this whole thing.

We don't know what they do.

We know now in Wyandotte County how much the chiefs are going to put in no or where or how it may not even going.

Wyandotte County, all they do is put out letters that say, gosh, this sounds like a good thing.

We don't have hard facts hardly at all.

Before moving on, I just want to mention I did see the new story here about the former head of Sporting KC, Rob Heineman, putting together a proposal to put the Royals Stadium in the West Bottoms where we have Hy-Vee Arena and the haunted houses, and it would straddle the state line between Kansas and Missouri.

Could that be the perfect fit that we don't make anybody angry over this?

No.

Why not?

Well, you just mentioned Hy-Vee Arena, which was formerly the Kemper Arena, which was not doing really well in a very isolated part of downtown.

You put a ballpark down there, you're going to run into the same access and other issues and you're not going to get the spin off redevelopment that they need to make this thing work.

Financial financials will flood in less.

Well, perhaps.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I mean, you know, it was a bad location for an arena and it's even worse for a ballpark.

And again, if they rely on creating some kind of a big entertainment district to generate revenues to help pay for this thing, it's just going to be a real mess.

Okay.

There's lots of other things happening in the news this week.

If you live in Kansas, tax cuts are on the way.

While this week's special session was dominated by talk of luring the chiefs and the royals to the Sunflower State, the purpose of the session was to provide some financial relief for Kansas families this election year.

It's important that Kansans get tax relief.

It's the number one thing I hear about at the door, and their wallets are suffering now, too.

And you mentioned to me off the air last week that most people would have no clue if you asked them what their state income tax rate is.

Similarly, most of us couldn't tell you what our property mill levy is.

So what does this actually mean in real money?

Is this a a few bucks for a cup of coffee?

Is is hundreds, thousands of dollars going to be getting back?

The big sticking point was going from three brackets to two.

Most people don't know what that means and won't until every April.

It could mean Nick depends, of course, on how much money you make.

You might see a property tax break at some point, although the reality is that the values in Kansas are rising so dramatically that that will vanish fairly quickly after some some other day.

We're talking about if one other thing they did there, they're exempting Social Security income from Kansas taxes.

Yeah, I'll notice that with Social Security recipients, I will notice that this is only one of nine states that actually does that.

That's right.

I think like any tax cut, the more money you make, the more taxes you were paying, the bigger you're going to note, the more you're going to notice a reduction in your taxes, which, of course, is the problem that a lot of Democrats had with this proposal.

Even as they voted for it, it tended to end up weighing heavier on the income tax side, where it's going to have a disproportionate benefit to the people who pay more in income tax and will accrue less benefits in some cases.

I think on a $250,000 home, the average property owners taxes might go down 100 or a couple hundred dollars.

They may not even notice it.

And so I think there is a a a reality that we have not heard the last conversation about tax reform in Kansas.

A lot will depend on who holds a super majority and who holds a governor's office in coming years.

Have you ever booked a vacation out of the United States and then went into a panic when you realized your passport had expired and were told it could take 2 to 3 months before you can get a new one?

Well, some great news on the way this week.

The U.S. State Department has just announced that Kansas City will be home to a new federal government passport center, which means you'll be able to swing by quickly in an emergency.

There are fewer than 30 passport offices currently around the country.

You know, people get super hyped about a Bucky's coming to town.

How does this compare in the excitement level?

Kevin Oh, well, I mean, it's a nice thing, but let's talk about what percentage of the public have passports to begin with?

How many people actually travel overseas?

I bet it's a pretty small share of the population.

It's a very convenient thing for a group of people, but I don't see this as being a major boon to the KC area.

It's a growing share of the public, though more than 40% of Americans now have a passport.

And speaking as someone who who once had to go to my congressman's office and desperately plea for an expedited passport, I can appreciate this.

But, you know, Nick, it's not really about the passport office.

It's about the entertainment district around the park.

That's it.

That's where the real excitement is.

But what about the parking?

Is my car.

Actually, there's there's a lot to this because.

Well, I have Michael Flatley, the Missouri Congressman, Emanuel Cleaver.

We had Sharice Davids all saying they were part of the decision patting themselves on the back for this.

So the question will be, where is this going to be built in Kansas and Missouri?

Should it be in the middle outstate like perhaps in the West Baltimore, so it could straddle Kansas?

It was probably on state line.

That would be a great place for it.

They're going to get to a place where you need a passport to go from Kansas into Missouri, a back and forth.

All right.

It's a week that sees Kansas City lose one of its best known arts leaders.

It's the final curtain call for Michael Stone after nearly 20 years with the Kansas City Symphony, He's bidding farewell with three back to back concerts at the Kauffman Center this weekend.

Stone says he has no permanent gig lined up when he departs Kansas City, He's handing over the baton to German conductor Matthias Pincher.

Well, we think about best known sports figures in Kansas City.

We can quickly rattle off Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

Think about a famous local politician, Liquid Lucas might be tip of your tongue, but ask people to name a top Kansas City arts leader outside of Michael Stern and possibly Julian over the Nelson.

Don't you think most people would struggle to even come up with the name Brian?

I think that is absolutely true, Nick.

I think we are a town that loves its arts and yet we don't attach to celebrity personas around the arts as much as as perhaps even some other cities do.

I do think, though, there is something to notice about the way this city supports the arts, and that is that we don't rely on a great deal of tax dollars.

In fact, we already mentioned earlier the defeat of the last one of the last attempts to suspend singing.

That was 20 years ago this year.

That feisty two failed half are all tough for sports programs and that failed.

But we do fund the arts.

We fund them through wealthy philanthropists making large donations.

There's a reason we go to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and sit in Helzberg Hall, and we need to remember that, especially when we talk, as you were mentioning earlier, about the those billionaires, in some ways we are indirectly funding the arts through their generosity.

But I want to add to that, you know, one thing that Kansas City has a very rich, rich heritage is the arts.

And when you look at how competition around America is going on, I would be willing to bet the arts scene, the symphony, the art museum, etc.

is richer here than some of these Sunbelt cities have been growing like weeds over the past 20, 30 years.

I would be willing to bet we have a much richer art scene than Phenix, which is probably two or three times larger than Kansas City, than Nashville, than Austin.

And a lot of these cities that we're competing with for intellectual talent.

And I think it's a really it's a credit to Kansas City that we have people like Michael Stern, who created a very well-respected symphony here.

And Julian over at the Nelson, who's created a terrific museum.

I mean, it's a good, good thing for our city overall.

When you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every story grabbing the headlines.

What was the big local story we missed?

The old Buck O'Neil Bridge finally comes tumbling down.

Hundreds of the nation's mayors in Kansas City is downtown, plays host to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Kansas City marks Juneteenth for the first time.

It's also a paid public holiday in Kansas.

We're all suffering from the sweltering heat.

Oh, if we're lucky, he's doing.

What about these elderly residents without air conditioning?

For most of the week, the Kansas attorney general sues Pfizer, claiming the company misled Kansans about the health risks of the COVID vaccine.

Four months after sending Missouri National Guard troops to the Mexican border, Governor Parson now ordering them home and a Kansas City civil rights leader getting the Hollywood treatment.

The world premiere this week of the heroic true life adventures of Alvin Brooks from Oscar winning screenwriter Kevin Willmott.

At 92, Brooks is still a popular figure around town, which might explain why multiple local screenings of the film sold out.

Don't worry, we're working to bring Alvin Brooks to your living room.

Kansas City PBS is scheduled to air the documentary on July 11th at 7 p.m.. BRYANT And you had one of those stories or something completely different, the Kris Kobach, his his effort to to to bring in sort of social issues into into court cases.

What I think we're seeing over and over and we're seeing it this week and we're seeing it in many weeks, Nick, is the use by attorney generals of court cases to to activate outside political social issues that at one time would not have been seen as part of their role as attorney generals?

I think in the coming months and years, we're going to see whether courts are willing to abide that practice.

And much will depend, of course, on what happens at the U.S. Supreme Court in some of those cases.

Can I tip my cap to a sort of a national story, The death of Willie Mays for people of a certain age, including your humble servant?

Guys like Willie Mays were our heroes when we were kids.

Eric I actually agree with something that Josh Hawley said.

Josh Hawley They were talking about registering the draft and they're starting to do that.

And one of the things they have in there is women.

And he said, I don't want my daughter having to register to go fight in a war and having a daughter and having three daughters myself.

I said, You know something?

He finally said something that made sense.

You may end up being in a campaign commercial for it, not all of it.

I do think the pending sale of the plaza, which is due to close next week, is a huge local event for these folks.

And out of Texas, too.

Finally, after six months negotiating their way to a deal, they think it's going to make sense for them is critical to the future.

Are you confident, though, that's going to make a huge difference in the past?

I think it's going to make a gigantic difference to have that kind of ownership.

And I know they've been doing their due diligence.

They've been working with the police department, they've been working with the city as far as incentives, as far as improvements to the infrastructure down there.

They apparently do have some retailers that are prepared to join.

I think it's going to be a major, major step forward as the streetcar is going to be opening up someday.

And anyway, it'll be really important for the city and that we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Casey was Brian Ellison and Eric Wesson of Next page, Casey Flatland contributing writer Kevin Collison and former star newsman Dave Helling.

And I'm Nick Haynes.

For all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.