By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is calling the legislature back into special session to reconsider a couple of pieces of legislation left undone during the regular session.
One is a $513 million capital improvement bill that contains money for St. Joseph projects. Another is an incentive package to keep the Chiefs and Royals in Missouri.
St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce President, Natalie Hawn, is keeping a close eye on the local projects and says while the incentives package for the Chiefs and Royals doesn’t have a direct impact on St. Joseph, it does mean something for area residents.
“There’s definitely a pride piece to that,” Hawn tells KFEQmmunity. “We are in St. Joseph, Missouri and if we were to lose both the Royals and the Chiefs to the Kansas side, I mean I think there’s a little bit of a pride piece to that. Those are our hometown teams.”
The proposal for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals involves the state issuing bonds to pay up to 70% of the cost of building new stadiums or renovating the current stadiums. The plan also would authorize up to $50 million in tax credits.
Kansas has an offer on the table that would pay up to 70% of building new stadiums for both teams.
House leadership refused to bring the capital improvement package up for a vote, infuriating Senate leaders and setting a sour tone for the last week of the legislative session. It contained financing for local projects, including $7 million for UMKC to establish a dental school in St. Joseph.
“That would be a partnership with Missouri Western, on campus, and again just another great training and opportunity to showcase our community; really get some folks for rural Missouri and other rural parts of the country that really need medicine, whether its dentists or doctors,” Hawn says.
Hawn says the dental school would be a logical next step for UMKC which has found success with its medical school in St. Joseph operated in partnership with Mosaic Life Care.
“I’d love to see that get across the finish line,” Hawn says. “I know there’s been a lot of work go into that program and it can be a real benefit, not only to St. Joseph, but people that are in rural parts of northwest Missouri. And then, obviously, I’d love to see us get the funding we need to secure Chiefs Training Camp for another year.”
That capital improvement package, House Bill 19, included $2.8 million for improvements to the Chiefs Training Camp at Missouri Western. The bill also contained $1 million for Mosaic Life Care to expand behavioral health services at its Emergency Room, and $800,000 for a new roof over the Pony Express Museum.
Kehoe also will ask the legislature to provide tax breaks for homeowners in St. Louis and other parts of Missouri that suffered property loss in the recent storms.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.