Missouri governor's plan for new Kansas City stadiums is meeting resistance

The Missouri legislature will conduct a special session next week, with one of the goals being action of bills aimed at keeping the Chiefs and Royals from crossing the border to Kansas.

It won't be easy. The Missouri Independent explores the political issues that complicate the effort to get public money for a renovated football stadium and a new baseball stadium.

From the right, Missouri governor Mike Kehoe faces demands for tax cuts. From the left, he's getting demands for more than $25 million in disaster relief after tornadoes recently ripped through St. Louis.

Making the situation even more delicate is gamesmanship regarding the manner in which the regular concluded. That culminated in a Thursday session punctuated by shouting.

The special session will focus on the stadium projects, with the state footing up to half the bill. Last year, Jackson County voters overwhelmingly rejected the continuation of an existing sales tax to fund the efforts. Soon, we'll find out whether the political machinery in Missouri can accomplish indirectly that which the people refused to directly do.