Missouri special session underway for professional sports team incentives, tornado victim relief
ST. LOUIS (First Alert 4) -- Lawmakers are back in Jefferson City after only two weeks off for a special session on several economic development packages.
Gov. Mike Kehoe called this special session for three things: incentivizing the Chiefs and Royals to keep their stadiums in Missouri, provide income tax relief to tornado victims, and fund several economic development projects throughout the state that didn’t make it into this year’s state budget.
“There’s a lot of outstanding issues, special sessions are never easy, but we have some tasks before us and I hope they’ll take them seriously,” Kehoe said.
Kehoe is asking lawmakers to craft an income tax deduction for those hit by storms this spring. It would be no greater than $5,000 per household, a total economic impact of $25 million for the state. Nearly every area of the state has been hit by storms. Kehoe requested federal disaster relief for storms in March, April and May; there are still several requests pending.
Sen. Doug Beck (D-St. Louis County), Senate minority leader, said he s tornado relief, but his caucus has not discussed the stadium incentives.
“We really, quite frankly, haven’t talked about that,” Beck said. “So, I couldn’t tell you where our caucus is member by member on the stadium plan.”
Kehoe’s plan only benefits NFL and MLB teams, allowing them to make upgrades to existing stadiums or construct new stadiums. The plan allows teams to get a bond up to their current state tax revenue; that comes out to nearly $29 million for the Chiefs and $26 million for the Royals. It also allows a 10% tax credit up to $50 million, and only up to half of the project.
There is a clawback trigger put in to protect Missouri. If a team relocates its headquarters or training facility to another state, the money will have to be returned.
The last part of Kehoe’s plan for a special session is to have lawmakers take another look at some capital projects that didn’t make it into the budget.
If everything goes smoothly, the special session could be done in two weeks. But, there is always the potential for things to change.
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