KC Tenants members interrupt ‘Vote Yes’ stadium tax listening session
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Area Development Council hosted a ‘Vote Yes’ listening session at Arrowhead Stadium on Monday.
Members of KC Tenants, who were successfully able to register, interrupted the event.
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“People should vote on this because we’re being asked to spend public taxpayer money on a billionaire’s profits,” KC Tenants organizer Magda Werkmeister told FOX4 Monday.
“We know that this is a plan that will displace small businesses, that will affect tenants in the area. We know it’s going to intensify gentrification downtown and the surrounding area, so yeah, folks should be able to vote on what we want to spend $2 billion on over the next 40 years.”
The Kansas City Royals and the Chiefs leadership were a part of the listening session and were willing to speak to the news media afterward. The media was not allowed to attend the session.
“It was unfortunate that a few loud voices muffled the opportunity for others to educate,” Royals Executive Vice President Sarah Tourville said to reporters after the session, talking about KC Tenants.
“What we have to make sure happens is that those few loud voices don’t distract our community from doing something transformational for the next 40 years.”
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Jackson County residents will be voting on a 3/8th-cent sales tax that will go to both the Chiefs and the Royals over the next 40 years. Jackson County shoppers are already paying a 3/8ths cent sales tax, but that tax expires in 2031.
If Jackson County residents say yes April 2, the Royals will use the sales tax money to help build their new ballpark in the Crossroads. The Chiefs will use that money to renovate GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Chiefs President Mark Donovan said his team is not asking for anything new from Jackson County taxpayers, but the tax residents are voting on is new.
The current tax has to be repealed to put this new one in place. The tax amount is the same that county shoppers are already paying, though.
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“If somebody comes back and says they don’t agree with that, and then enough people vote no, then we’re in a situation where we’ve got to look at that and say, ‘Well, that’s the deal we offered, and that wasn’t good enough, what is? And what are our other options?’ At that point you’ve got to look at your other options,” Donovan said.
“So the other options would have to include places outside of Kansas City, Missouri… yes,” he said when asked if their other options would be outside of Kansas City.
In-person absentee voting without an excuse starts Tuesday, two weeks before the election.
