The Missouri Senate passed legislation Thursday that would help fund stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals and $100 million for storm recovery specifically for St. Louis.
The bills now go to the House.
Storm relief
Senators passed the bill containing money for storm relief, as well as other projects, 23-10.
Originally, the Senate bill contained only $25 million to go to the Missouri Housing Trust Fund. That money would go toward storm aid, including housing subsidy grants or loans.
Money from that original $25 million fund could go toward not only areas that experienced storm damage from the May tornado, but from storms that occurred in March and April as well.
Senate Democrats were unhappy with the initial amount of funding, saying it would not nearly be enough to cover all counties affected by the storms.
Now, in addition to the $25 million, the bill also allocates $100 million to just St. Louis.
Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, said she was elated they were able to negotiate the $100 million with Gov. Mike Kehoe's office.
"I'm sure that down the line, we'll have more funding coming in, but we definitely needed something immediate that can take care of some immediate needs," May said.
Currently, Missouri is waiting for a response from President Donald Trump on Kehoe's request for a federal disaster declaration from the May 16 tornado.
May said they still aren't sure Missouri will get that declaration.
"This is exactly what we need in this moment, you know, because we don't have that assurance right now," May said.
Sen. Brian Williams, D-University City, had called the $25 million in the original bill "an insulting amount of money."
Now, he said he's proud to have approved that additional funding.
"This has been one of the most devastating occurrences that I've ever seen in my life, and one thing that we always hope as elected officials is to be there for our community and have their back," Williams said.
Although St. Louis County did not receive a specific allocation of money, Williams said residents would be able to access the $25 million from the Missouri Housing Trust Fund.
Williams also said securing the additional $100 million was important because some of the other relief being provided for storm survivors requires them to have tax liability.
"There will be some people who may not be eligible. So we wanted to make sure there was a safety net for the folks who really need it the most, and didn't qualify for these tax incentives," Williams said.
Senator Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, said he wishes those affected would have taken more responsibility to have insurance for their homes and possessions.
"Unless people take personal responsibility and do the things they should be doing so that we don't have to, when is this going to end?" Moon said.
The legislation also contains funding for other statewide projects.
That includes $50 million for the Radioisotope Science Center at the University of Missouri Research Reactor, $55 million for upgrades to the Missouri State Fair and almost $50 million for a mental health hospital in Kansas City. All that funding failed to get approved in the regular legislative session.
In a separate piece of legislation related to storm relief, senators voted 29-4 to pass a bill that would expand who could qualify for the aid from the Missouri Housing Trust Fund.
The bill immediately transfers the money for emergency aid from the Housing Trust Fund to the Missouri Housing Development Commission.
The legislation also expands who would be eligible for that aid, from the current 50% mark for regional average median income to 75%.
Stadium funding gets bipartisan support
Senators also passed legislation that would allow the state to help fund new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals.
The Senate voted 19-13, with bipartisan support, early Thursday to pass the bill. It now goes to the House, where the stadium portion has already passed once before.
The bill would allow the state to help fund new stadiums or stadium renovations for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. It could also apply to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The program would provide matching funds for development and renovations by covering annual bond payments to the amount that the team is currently generating in taxes in Missouri.
However, in the version of the bill that passed, the FIFA 2026 World Cup, which will have matches at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, will not count towards the calculation of how much money could be bonded.
"There is a baseline tax year that is going to be used. And the question was, 'Well, what if they use 2026 as their baseline tax year? That would be a windfall that there's no way there's going to be the same amount of revenue over the next 30 years," said Sen. Kurtis Gregory, R-Marshall.
Through the bill, total state dollars would not exceed 50% of total project costs. The measure would contain a clawback provision, meaning that if a team leaves Missouri after funds are committed to a project, it will be responsible for paying back the state.
The bill also requires public investment from local governments.
The legislation is estimated to cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
The bill is a response to legislation passed last year by Kansas lawmakers that offers to pay 70% of the cost of building new stadiums.
During the committee process, neither representative from the Chiefs or Royals gave a guarantee the teams would stay if Missouri passed this bill.
However, Gregory said he believes Missouri's offer is a good one and that the teams want to stay in the state.
"If they wanted to go to Kansas, I believe they would have already signed on the dotted line to move those teams just a little bit west, over into the state of Kansas," Gregory said.
In addition to the stadium portion of the bill, the legislation also extends the expiration date of a tax credit towards amateur and collegiate sports events.
Gregory said the tax credit, which is currently scheduled to expire this year, is why the state has gotten tournaments like the Frozen Four for NCAA hockey in St. Louis this year.
"It's important that we get that reauthorized and so that's why it ended up inside of this call," Gregory said.
While Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, voted against the legislation, she said on the floor that the tax credit is one of the things she liked in the bill.
"If we can help draw things to the St. Louis region through that amateur sports tax credit, that's the kind of thing that can help drive revenue and increase revenue there," McCreery said.
The bill also contains tax relief for disaster victims. It allows taxpayers to claim a tax credit for an amount not exceeding $5,000 for the insurance deductible incurred by the taxpayer during the 2025 calendar year as a direct result of a disaster.
The disaster must be one where the governor has requested a presidential disaster declaration.
The credit can also be carried forward into future tax years.
"If you owe the state of Missouri $5,000 that year, that tax credit is going to take care of that $5,000, if you owe $10,000 that is going to reduce your liability down to $5,000 and then you're going to be able to carry that forward into the next tax year with a little bit of leftover," Gregory said.
Most of the discussion on the bill, however, centered around property taxes.
Lawmakers spent hours on an amendment that would have put forth to voters in some Missouri counties a question of whether taxpayers should be exempt from increases in property tax liability.
It would have also allowed the county government to adopt the exemption as well.
Sen. Joe Nicola, R-Grain Valley, sponsored the original amendment and included Jackson County, which he represents a part of.
However, the final version of the bill, which requires some Missouri counties to place on the ballot a question of whether to grant a property tax credit, does not include Jackson County. It also does not include St. Louis County.
"I've been fighting for property taxes this whole session, and my amendment was placed on your first sub and then it was shot down," Nicola said. "And now we have another bill, and 97 counties are going to have the option of getting some property tax relief, and my county is not involved."
McCreery said the reason why the body was even debating property taxes at all was to get some Senators on board with the stadium bill.
"It's not about sound public policy. It's about horse trading so that multi-billionaires can have the taxpayers build a stadium for them," McCreery said.
Speaking overall on the special session, Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton, said going in, Democrats wanted more money for storm relief, full funding for the University of Missouri Reactor, funding for the mental health hospital in Kansas City and "that no stadium project moves forward without local support."
"We achieved all of those goals and more," Beck said.
This story has been updated with stadium funding passage and special session comments from legislators.
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