TOPEKA — Moving the Chiefs to Kansas will spur economic development, but the complexity and lack of details about the deal make it difficult to determine what taxpayers will ultimately pay.

The announcement that the Chiefs and state of Kansas will spend an estimated $4 billion to build a domed stadium in Wyandotte County surrounded by an entertainment district and a team headquarters and training facility in Johnson County has prompted questions about whether Kansans will lose money on the deal.

Economic growth in a large and so-far-undefined area in Wyandotte and Johnson counties will be reserved to pay down STAR bonds over the next two or three decades. The Chiefs also could enjoy property tax subsidies and other financial support if economic development programs are implemented locally. 

It is accurate when state leaders say no new taxes will be implemented to move the Chiefs across the border, said Ian Graves, a Prairie Village City Council member and self-described public finance policy wonk who has been studying the details. 

However, the project may require new taxes down the road to cover the loss of revenue growth that would normally flow into the state’s coffers, he said. 

The Chiefs project will be funded through a 60-40 public-private partnership, according to terms posted online by the Kansas Department of Commerce. The state’s 60% of funding will come from a mix of STAR bonds, or sales tax and revenue bonds, and funds in the Attracting Professional Sports to Kansas Fund, which is revenue from iLottery and sports betting. 

STAR bonds also will be repaid with 100% of liquor sales tax collected in the district. 

According to a Commerce Department fact sheet, the state expects 20,000 new jobs to be created during the construction phase and more than 4,000 new permanent jobs at the stadium and entertainment district that will surround the stadium. The annual estimated economic impact is expected to be $1 billion, and the Chiefs will pay $7 million in annual rent. 

Graves said his primary concern is with how the project freezes future revenue growth.  

“We are diverting natural revenue growth over time that we rely on to basically account for the increase of price in goods and services that governments require,” he said. “If you look at sales tax revenue growth, just naturally, it floats with inflation because as the price of purchased goods go up, sales tax revenues also climb, and then that increased revenue goes back to be able to support the city or state.”

Graves said his interest isn’t part of his Prairie Village role but came about because the city recently passed bonds and he had spent time learning about their mechanisms. He used his computer science background to build an online tool to take a deep dive into costs associated with the Chiefs project.

The tool allows users to change assumptions such as the interest rate, repayment period and principal amount. 

“Even after I made it, I’m like this still isn’t super easy to understand,” he said. “You can set worst-case scenarios, but basically it’s just a lot of money going to it, and you can see that most of it is just regular old sales and use tax. The narrative about alcohol and gambling revenues, that’s just kind of window dressing. It’s just sales taxes that are powering this thing.”

Toggling different scenarios on Graves’ STAR bonds financing model, the state’s portion over time — including principal and interest — could be anywhere from $3 billion to $4 billion and on up. 

Paul Byrne, economics professor at Washburn University, said moving the Chiefs will definitely generate new economic activity for Kansas. 

“Some of the critics kind of downplay that, but you’re having a lot of people crossing the state line, they’re going to spend a lot of money,” he said. “That money is going to have a multiplier effect, and that’s going to have an impact on the revenue. So that I definitely take as a given.”

The multiplier effect refers to the idea that money spent in a community has a ripple effect. A cook at a new restaurant receives a paycheck on which they paid taxes. They then buy groceries at local stores, which fuels more jobs and income in the community. 

However, the question is whether that growth will justify the subsidies going to build the Chiefs’ facilities, Byrne said.

He expressed concern about the way the STAR bonds will be set up and what challenges that will present for repayment and the state budget. Much is still unknown, he said.

STAR bonds

Kansas STAR bonds are issued to finance major development projects, and under usual circumstances, must be for projects where the capital investment exceeds $75 million and projected annual gross sales are $75 million, according to the Kansas Department of Commerce. 

The bonds must not pay for more than 50% of the development and are typically repaid over 20 years. 

However, to entice the Chiefs and possibly the Royals across the state border, the Kansas Legislature in 2024 passed a special session law that would allow STAR bonds to pay for up to 70% of a project and upped the repayment timeframe to 30 years.

STAR bonds typically are paid through state retail sales tax dollars generated by the district, which is determined by the Commerce Department. For instance, if the bond district had $1 million in state sales tax revenue in the 12 months preceding the date the bonds were issued, that sets the base value at $1 million. If sales tax revenue jumped to $6 million after the new development, the new revenue of $5 million would go to debt repayment. 

However, new regulations regarding stadium development allow the base value to be changed, Byrne said. 

“It gives the secretary of commerce the right to pick any base value,” Byrne said. “That jumped out at me because they could just make everything zero. If they choose a base value that’s below what would typically be a base value, well then you’re even more clearly capturing sales tax revenue or property tax revenue, or whatever would have gone to the state and to the local government.” 

Although the state has approved using its sales tax revenue in the proposed district to repay the STAR bonds, other taxing authorities in the district, such as Wyandotte County and Olathe, will vote on whether to fund the project with a percentage or all of local sales taxes collected.

Bob North, the Commerce Department’s chief counsel, said changing that base value hasn’t been discussed. But he said state legislators and leaders have made it clear they don’t want to set a base that would have any effect on existing income.

“We’re not going to set an artificially low base, because that could actually have an impact on state general fund revenues,” he said. 

The state budget

The Chiefs economic development package will affect state revenue, North said. 

“We think some of that foregone revenue will be made up with increased income tax and some of the other kinds of economic benefits we’re going to see from the Chiefs being here,” he said. 

North stressed that only the state portion of the sales tax revenue increase in the bond district will repay the Chiefs bonds. Local governments will have to determine whether they are going to pledge county or city sales tax revenue to the STAR bonds. 

If local communities choose not to participate, it would have a negative financial impact on the project, North said. 

“STAR bonds are built on the premise that it’s going to be a partnership between the state and the local units of government,” he said. “We anticipate both Olathe and Kansas City, Kansas, unified government voting to participate in the STAR bonds. It’s really important, and something that we’re monitoring very closely.” 

But would it be a deal breaker if they don’t participate? 

“It’s hard to look nine to 12 months into the future,” North said. “The answer to that is going to depend on the kind of economic conditions that are present in nine to 12 months, interest rates and general economic conditions and things like that. So we can’t definitively say at this point in time what that impact might be.”

The participation of local governments concerns Graves, who said taking away the growth in revenue could put the area in a position of being unable to keep up with annual increases in the cost of doing business. 

“It all creeps up on you over time,” he said. “That’ll happen about two election cycles out, is when that will really bite. In one or two election cycles, it’s going to be like, ‘Gosh, we really have this budget shortfall, and it’s because we’ve nuked off all this natural growth from Wyandotte and JoCo from feeding into the state coffers.’ And so how are they going to plug that hole? Are they going to cut services? They going to raise taxes? They going to do both? And that will be a question for future Kansas. Not cool just-got-the-Chiefs Kansas, right?”

The map

A map put out by the Kansas Department of Commerce highlights possible boundaries for the STAR bond district, which is key to determine how much of an area’s sales tax revenue will be pulled into paying for the stadium. 

The map is labeled “illustrative” and notes the final boundaries will be determined by the secretary of commerce. When overlaid on a county map, it looks as if the boundaries could include all of Wyandotte County, but North said that won’t be the case. 

The district will be finalized by the secretary closer to when the STAR bonds are issued, which will be in six to eight months, he said. 

“The size of the district is going to be contingent, to a certain extent, on what we need to do to finance the bonds,” North said. 

For instance, if interest rates drop two points in the next few months, the district would have a smaller footprint, and the opposite is also true, he said. 

“The unknown is the exact site in Wyandotte County, and until that piece is resolved, we can’t really finalize what Wyandotte County is going to look like,” he said. “It certainly will not be the entire county. The STAR bond district will be the stadium and then the mixed-use development that’s adjacent to the stadium.”

North said the STAR bond act allows the commerce secretary to reduce or add to the district’s size after it is set up, if necessary, but he could only think of instances in which the land area has been reduced. 

Up in the air

Some parts of the plan are uncertain, such as whether the Chiefs will take advantage of the state’s High Performance Incentive Program, or HPIP, Byrne said. The program provides a 10% income tax credit for eligible capital investments, with the threshold in five metro counties, including Wyandotte and Johnson, set at $1 million. 

It also provides a sales tax exemption that can be used on the company’s capital investments, and a training tax credit up to $50,000. 

The HPIP is for companies that locate their headquarters in the state and pay above-average wages. North said it is a statutory program and isn’t included in the stadium bill, so if the Chiefs meet the criteria laid out, they can participate.  

Byrne said visiting players on opposing teams would likely pay tax for their work in the state, which would be a benefit to state revenue. In addition, other events held at the stadium during the offseason could bring in revenue. 

Although the published STAR bonds district map isn’t finalized, it indicates the district will be large, he said. 

One misconception he’s seen around STAR bonds is confusion over where the sales tax revenue comes from to pay off the bonds, Byrne said. 

“People think there’s some special way where they only include the Chiefs stadium. It captures everything,” he said. “Somebody goes in the middle of May and goes to a restaurant, that’ll be captured as well. And clearly that person probably isn’t going there just because there’s a stadium there, because the Chiefs are there. That’s the misconception.”

Graves said other uncertainties are outlined in the STAR bonds terms, which open the possibility of setting up other taxing districts such as TIFs, or tax increment financing districts. A TIF district does what STAR bonds do, except with property taxes. 

Property tax values are frozen at the beginning of the project, and when improvements generate additional property taxes, those dollars would pay for improvements.

The STAR bonds terms with the Chiefs also open the possibility to establish community improvement districts and transportation improvement districts, Graves said.  

“All of those can be set up, and they do not count toward the public portion of the project’s cap,” he said. “What I take that to mean is that Wyandotte could, in theory, establish something like a TIF in the surrounding area around the Chiefs stadium, at the behest of the Chiefs or the developers working for the Chiefs, or what have you, to also capture revenues on the property tax side and divert that to developing those districts.”

Yay or nay?

Both Graves and Byrne pointed to economists who, in general, say stadium subsidy deals are not winners for states. 

Byrne said he can’t ignore the economic development that will occur. 

Unlike some projects that are controversial because they simply shift economic activity from one part of a town or county to another part, Byrne said shifting economic dollars from MIssouri to Kansas will positively affect Kansas. 

“There’s a reason you had those border wars for all those years,” Byrne said. “If you can get someone across that state line, it is going to generate pretty significant economic activity.”

North pointed to expected job creation, which will increase state income tax collections, and property taxes from major developments that occur. That assumes local areas don’t set up a TIF district that would subsidize the development by nixing property taxes.

Graves said he’s “agnostic” about whether the state should have fought to bring the Chiefs to Kansas. 

“What I wish we could be more clear about is how this financing works,” he said. “Because I don’t feel like we’re being transparent with the residents about where this money is coming from, and what public services they rely on that rely on this increment that naturally grows. I don’t think we’re being straightforward. After 10 years of growth, this could be hundreds of millions of dollars diverted every year to financing this thing, and that’s a hole in the budget. What’s going to flood that hole?”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

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