KC officials say Kansas violated 5-year-old ‘truce’ with STAR bonds. Here’s what it said

The Kansas Legislature passed a plan to attract the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals on Tuesday, starting a process that could lead to the state issuing billions in bonds to build new stadiums — debt that will take decades of sales tax, sports betting and lottery revenues to repay.

In doing so, some political leaders in Missouri say Kansas reignited the economic “border war” between the two states and broke a truce agreed upon by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson in 2019.

What is the truce, and how binding was it? Does Kansas passing the plan break the agreement? Here’s what to know.

What was the truce that ended Kansas, Missouri border war?

Kelly and Parson pledged to usher in a new era of cooperation between the two states in 2019.

The pair signed an agreement pledging to end the use of tax incentives to lure companies across the state line that do not create new jobs for the region. They said that practice has cost both states hundreds of millions of dollars with little to show for it.

The governors said incentives for those deals that don’t create new jobs would end immediately. The agreement followed previous action from both states: Parson on June 11, 2019, signed legislation that sought to end the economic border war. Kelly followed with an executive order on Aug. 2, 2019.

In a 2019 news conference, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas commended the two states’ work on ending the border war and pledged to do the same locally. He noted residents across the metro refer to themselves as Kansas Citians whether they live in the city limits or not.

“Lots of people cross lines every day,” Lucas said. “They may live in Grandview and work in Kansas City or live in Blue Springs and work in Olathe. That’s the way most of us see it. And we call ourselves Kansas Citians because we care about and love this region.”

What did the ‘truce’ do for both states?

Under Kelly’s order, Kansas officials were prohibited from using state-level economic development incentives to draw businesses with jobs located in the Missouri counties of Jackson, Platte, Clay or Cass to relocate them to the Kansas counties of Johnson, Wyandotte or Miami.

The order said that economic incentives would only be offered for the new jobs created by a business relocating from border counties. In other words, if a Missouri business with 100 jobs moves to Kansas and hires 50 additional people, it should only receive incentives for the 50 new jobs.

The bill Parson signed created the same requirements on the Missouri side.

Missouri law on border war with Kansas by The Kansas City Star on Scribd

Is the agreement legally binding?

The agreement can be rescinded on either side of the state line, but in different ways. Repealing Kansas‘ executive order would be up to the governor, but the Missouri legislature would have to act on its law.

The agreement carved out exceptions for hotels, retail businesses and “local services” companies. Kelly’s order in 2019 asked cities and counties to comply with the agreement, but they weren’t bound by it.

Kansas executive order on border war by The Kansas City Star on Scribd

What are leaders saying about the broken agreement?

Jackson County executive Frank White Jr. said in a statement after the vote Tuesday that he “urges all stakeholders to honor the spirit of the 2019 truce and refrain from engaging in a counterproductive stadium bidding war.”

“This competition does not serve our residents or our communities. Instead of working together to grow all our neighborhoods, we risk hurting the very people we are supposed to serve,” White said. “In order to subsidize the renovation or construction of any stadium for privately owned sports teams, my stance remains clear: there must be a complete and transparent plan that offers tangible benefits to our taxpayers.”

Lucas cast the Kansas Legislature’s vote as a regrettable violation of the truce.

In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said Kansas passing the plan creates more leverage for the teams and injects greater uncertainty into the regional stadium conversation.

“We don’t have some exception where anything cool that wasn’t explicitly written is exempted from it,” Lucas told reporters Tuesday.

Kansas Sen. Robert Olson told The Star on Thursday he doesn’t know what Jackson County voters’ intentions were when they voted against the sales tax, but he doesn’t believe that the new plan violates the truce.

The Olathe Republican said that when Missourians didn’t vote for the sales tax in April, they said they didn’t want to spend more money on those teams.

“The fact is, I mean, if there was a border war and a truce, when that vote went down, then truce was over,” Olson said.

Kansas Sen. J.R. Claeys said that the teams could have opted to leave the Kansas City area, and that Kansas has given them another option to stay. Kansas stepped up and made an offer to keep them in the area that serves everyone on both sides of the state line, he said.

“This is just a way to keep them in the Kansas City metro area,” the Salina Republican said. “We’re not in competition with Missouri. We’re in competition with Salt Lake City. We’re in competition with Nashville. With San Antonio.”