This week, your handy dandy pre-election guide just ahead of Tuesday's stadium election.

Plus, lifting up the hood on some huge developments being promised in Kansas City.

Are you ready to take the family to Barbie world?

Those stories and the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City, RSM Dave and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Courtney s Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America, N.A.

Co Trustees.

The restaurant at 1905 viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haines.

Great to have you with us.

Are you ready to finally decide the stadium tax?

We're just days away now.

I think our panelists are ready to get over with it.

Dave Helling has been one of the most prominent writers of the issue in the Kansas City Star.

It's been a never ending topic of conversation on Dana and talks on KMBZ Radio.

Dana Wright with us this week.

So is Eric Wesson from our metro's newest newspaper.

Next page, KC and Brian Ellison, who track some of our metro's most interesting political stories for you at KCUR News.

You know, more than two years after John Sherman first announced plans to move the royals downtown, voters finally get a chance to weigh in on the idea on Tuesday.

Jackson County residents will go to the polls to decide on a new royals ballpark in the crossroads that also decide whether to approve a revamped Arrowhead Stadium, which would include a new entertainment space on the site of what would be a bulldozed Kauffman Stadium.

This has been an exhausting slog of a campaign.

Jackson County executive Frank White recently claimed he didn't even know what we were voting for anymore.

For his benefit and for thousands of our viewers, Dana right.

What is the most convincing arguments?

The proponent to making?

What is the biggest argument they make as to why you should vote yes.

It started out with economic development, if you recall.

It was all about revitalizing downtown.

And I think there's an argument to be made now that we've kind of dovetailed into let's vote yes to make sure we keep the teams here.

And I think that there are voters who are uncomfortable with the idea that that they feel like there's some implied threat there.

And then we have to talk about voter turnout.

I think in the beginning they wanted a lower voter turnout.

And I think there's maybe an argument to be made now.

They want more chiefs and Royals fans showing up who maybe aren't paying attention to all of the details, who just vote yes because they're huge Mahomes.

By the way, when we did our stadium debate last week in the slot at the Kansas City Plaza Library, I mean, it was absolutely bursting at the seams that many people interested.

That's rare to happen.

Well, what is the best opponent argument that you've heard thus far, Eric, that there's not enough details about what this is all about.

The lease agreements, the community benefits agreement didn't have enough details in it.

So that's their best argument, even though it's kind of sketchy.

You know, it's interesting, David, that last week I have been at a point of transparency back in my home of Wales meeting with my family members.

So I've been watching this from afar, but it has been amazing.

Every single day there's been a new story with a new new twist, new change, even a change in the design of the ballpark proposed downtown because the mayor didn't like the closing of Oak Street.

Now the Royals revamping, that was whole sketches.

So even those glossy images we've been seeing, those video renderings, it's not going to necessarily look like that right now.

They've got to figure out how to squeeze a major League Baseball stadium between Oak and Grand, which is extraordinarily difficult.

That's why, Nick, I think whatever happens next Tuesday, pass or fail, the argument over downtown baseball isn't over in terms of how it works, where it goes, what impact it may or may not have.

It may take months, perhaps years to sort all of that out, even if it passes.

I think the Arrowhead renovations will be a bit easier.

Again, if voters say yes, but we're in for a long, long discussion about how baseball is going to work.

Last week we didn't have we now debate the community benefit agreement.

They hadn't even got to that at that point.

Now we're talking about, yes, we've got an historic deal, one of the best in the entire nation of its kind.

Brian.

And then yet we hear from Casey.

Well, it's entirely PR quote.

It's a fake CBA.

What is it?

Well, that is a great question.

To Dave's point, I think we definitely are at the beginning of this process, not at the end of it, regardless of how the vote goes.

It is it is a real CBA.

It's simply that we don't know all of the details of it.

Some of them are still being negotiated and some of the groups that were originally at the table negotiating the CBA have walked away.

So we know there's something there for Kansas City public schools.

We know there's something there for arts.

Casey But there are other groups that have said they haven't been part of the negotiations.

Now, as it's gotten to, it's not the finish line, its current finish line.

So I do think we're you know, it was interesting this week on Casey, You are Shawn Smith, one of the Jackson County legislators, said that he is not thinking of Tuesday's referendum and he refused to say how he's voting on it, by the way.

But he said he's not thinking of the referendum as the the the will we have the stadium or won't we?

He's thinking of it as the permission to keep negotiating.

It's the it's to give the county a stronger negotiating position with the teams as they move forward.

That's an interesting way to think about it and probably reflects the political reality that that that we still have a long way to go.

You know, I've always been very vocal about wanting a downtown stadium.

I have said on this very program, build it, baby build.

But I say it, Build, baby, build.

But I think when was the last time something of this magnitude was put in front of voters where there were so many unanswered questions.

And it's a fair question to ask.

I think I have heard this is a dead heat.

If you believe the polling, this is a dead heat.

And Dave and I were talking before we went on the air here and you said, I don't know how this is going to go.

To which I replied, If Dave Helling doesn't know how this is going to go, nobody knows how this is going to go.

We're all in trouble.

We should make the point, Nick, that the royals and chiefs have been on notice about the need for details for years.

And I think one of the frustrations that a lot of voters have is not that it's a rush to judgment at the end, but why did we have to vote in April when so many of these details had not been finalized?

But in the debate we did last week, though, we had Sarah Torvill, who was the executive vice president.

The royals say we blame that on Frank White.

And he was in the audience, which was an uncomfortable moment.

And she says he's been sitting on his hands basically for two years and that's it.

Is that fair criticism, though?

I believe it is, because it has been they have exposed that this is what they were going to do.

And a lot of people are still in the mindset.

And I think Shaun said it perfectly well on cue or that Frank is kind of over his head with this and is it personal and how much of it is Jackson County because the Royals wouldn't hire him to be a manager?

So he held their heads up because this week he said, Well, the airhead playing is fine, is the Royals playing?

So I just before diving into our studio right now, we had Brian, you were just interviewing Frank White.

I just spoke to Frank White.

I asked him that very question, Why were you not there?

And Frank White says he was there.

He says he was negotiating with the royals throughout last year.

I don't know if that's his office or if there's different memories or if there's different meetings that they're talking about that he wasn't at.

But but Frank White denies that he was delaying negotiations.

What he does say is that the royals have not invited him to negotiations since January, since he vetoed the placing of this issue on the ballot and that veto was overridden.

And what the who the royals have been negotiating with very clearly now are county legislators, the ones who will eventually have to approve the lease.

Right.

But the question is really that we are at the finish line here, and so is your average voter paying attention and getting into the weeds of all of these issues, or is your average voter going to go vote on a ballot issue, which the last time there was something of this magnitude, it was an 18% turnout, I believe it was low.

Is your average voter going to go and care about those details or are they just going to see chiefs and royals in tandem and green like this?

And that's what nobody knows.

I don't think they're going to.

But really, some people have focused on the leases in the CBA and the specifics of the plan.

Most people, as Dana points out, have a more generic approach to this issue.

But but they do know that questions that should have been settled one way or another have not been settled.

And that's always a tough, tough.

The default position on taxes is no, if you don't know what the money is going to go for.

And I think that's why this could.

But I have to say, though, you mentioned at the beginning how this campaign had changed to saying if you vote no, we may not have these teams any longer.

Keeping them here has been the big thing.

Do we really have a definitive view today as we sit to just before Election Day about what will happen if voters vote no on Tuesday?

I mean, that's the interesting question.

I don't know that we have a definitive view.

The fact is the teams have not made that threat.

Even though it seems to be in the air, it seems to be implicit.

Just yesterday on an up to date, John Sherman did say that that that he his desire is to keep the team in Jackson County.

I've heard him say on Campisi that he is actually committed to keeping them in the in Kansas City, not necessarily Jackson County.

So we'll see what that works out to mean.

The royal the Chiefs have never threatened to.

I by the way, Frank what Frank like this week saying he's ready to have a separate campaign effort just to keep the chiefs in Jackson County and that would be on the August ballot.

Right.

Okay.

That's if it doesn't pass.

But I think Mark Donovan, the president of the chiefs, has talked about it, and I think he's done this on CBS as well on national news about them leaving.

If this doesn't pass, they kind of feel like they're feeling disrespected to a great degree.

They're the Chiefs three time Super Bowl champion.

Why should they have to go through it?

Also, just quickly, Nick, point out that the campaign, the yes vote specifically says keep the royals and chiefs in Jackson County.

That's about as explosive a threat to land as you can get if you vote no.

And to me and at the bottom, it also says, well, these cities didn't go along with building new stadiums.

And they they left these teams left.

We're still getting lots of questions from our viewers about the stadium issue.

Scott asks, Are there any serious offers from Kansas to have the royals move there?

And the answer is no, not yet.

And it isn't clear that Kansas has the kind of money that the Chiefs, for example, would ask if they did want to move to Wyandotte County or Johnson County.

Remember, the bi state vote in 2004 included a sales tax in Johnson and Wyandotte County for the stadiums.

Johnson County voters turned it down, so there's not a great deal of support for stadiums on that side of the state line.

And by the way, Missouri is not exactly excited about kicking in money for either of these projects either.

That's another unanswered question.

What role, if any, will the states play and what role the city that play?

Will they go to the Port Authority to get money?

Will they bring a tax to Kansas City as to pay and including the role of the state of Missouri will pay?

And they haven't even announced if they're even going to give any cash to a improvements for the royals and the chiefs in this tax elections.

That's right.

The tax that was the current budget that's being discussed in the state legislature for this year doesn't include any money.

The governor didn't think it was appropriate to include it.

I think after the vote, if it goes to a yes, there will be discussion about that, but we don't know how much.

You know, I think those earlier votes on the Kansas side were about supporting stadiums on the Missouri side.

I think we I think we do have to wonder whether there might be a groundswell of support.

And I to be honest, I think that might be if there is a threat.

Probably the more realistic threat would be, you know, if you really don't want this Jackson County, maybe we should take it somewhere else in the area and watch those tax dollars do across the board.

Look this up.

It's important to point out a pretty significant number of professional teams do not play in the cities they represent.

We would certainly not be the first if that were to happen.

Yes.

In addition to that, along with what she's saying, a lot of stadiums, I think maybe it might be three that aren't publicly funded.

When they build these stadiums, they build these stadiums.

And the Dallas Cowboys was the one that started the dream of having taxpayers pay for these stadiums.

I have to say, one of the most convincing arguments of Jackson County executive Ray White has been what's the hurry?

The leases don't end until 2031.

Is he right about that, that we still have time, even if voters vote no on Tuesday, as we've learned, this is a long process, and particularly for the royals, some decision in this time frame is probably essential because designing, building, doing all the steps to build a brand new stadium in downtown is going to be complicated and take some time.

And they want to be playing there by 2028, which is why the leases need to be renegotiated because they can't leave Truman Sports Complex until the end of the 2030 season unless those are renegotiated.

I've been told repeatedly, Nick, that the Chiefs have no sense of urgency, like the Royals, that they're content.

First of all, they've got to figure out the World Cup and then once that's over, then, okay, what this is what we might want to do in terms of the fan experience, but they don't feel that they need to move quite as quickly as maybe the royals do.

Aren't.

Are we also done early combat renewal?

It was done beforehand, the fire tax done before it was expired.

So I'm kind of thinking that most of these renewal taxes are always done before they expire.

Well, and now and combat is indefinite now, and it is from now to eternity.

And I think part of why they would do those taxes early and why this one is happening so early is precisely because of the potential of this vote going the going to know.

And I think to your earlier question, Nic, about what happens if there's a no vote, I think the most likely answer is there will be another vote, maybe soon, maybe in a year or two.

But but I doubt we're done with this.

Is there any rules in the state of Missouri and says you can't put the same issue on the ballot within a certain period?

Okay, So they can just bring it back.

But my guess is they would do it next year rather than this year.

Give everybody a chance to take a breath, step back, take another look at what everyone wants to do and try to be a little more organized before going to voters if the vote is now.

Okay.

So the election is on Tuesday, by the way, Bryan, are they going to be because this is really suck the oxygen out of the room is be the only issue that seems to be talked about.

Is there anything else actually on the ballot?

Are you going to be surprised to see when you go to your polling station on Tuesday?

I should I should check.

Yes.

There are some other things on the ballot.

Believe it or not, there is other news happening in the world, mostly in the area of school board elections in our area.

Lee's Summit, Independence, St Joseph, Grandview, all have actually somewhat significant school board elections where certain kinds of board members might represent a different ideological position that would shift those boards.

Now, if you live in Kansas, by the way, you can sit this one out, you have nothing to vote on on Tuesday.

You may be still exhausted from going to the polls last week to vote in the Kansas presidential primary.

What do you mean you didn't go?

Well, don't worry, you're not alone.

Apparently, only 6% of voters cast ballots in Johnson and Wyandotte counties.

The shockingly low numbers even caught local elected officials by surprise.

Did that surprise you, Dana?

It did not.

But it's sad.

It's really sad to see those numbers and and quite frankly, embarrassing to to see those numbers.

I see the Topeka Capital-Journal broke down based on the number of voters because it cost $5 million to put on this election, Dave, and that was $35 per person, basically.

Will Kansas do it again?

Well, we'll see.

I mean, Kansas and Missouri have always lagged behind other states in terms of presidential preference, which is what was involved here.

And the nominations were settled weeks ago.

There wasn't really an incentive for people to go to the polls.

Now, with all the drama of the stadium tax election, did many of us miss that?

It was opening day for the royals this week.

Baseball is officially back.

Brian, you were there.

Were there any overt efforts to convince captive fans to vote yes on the stadium tax while you were there, perhaps offering free beers in special Yes on question one cups, were there those there?

I do not think it was so overt on the protest signs, though.

Even yard signs.

There were signs and some, you know, that might otherwise be celebrating.

Players were advocating particular positions.

It was a beautiful day for baseball.

Nick.

I have to say I was actually a little surprised given the team's performance last year, given the the kind of the general angst in the air about about baseball, that that actually it was another sellout day of perfectly blue sky.

But there were some political demonstrations.

There was an enormous banner that someone unfurled for about what would you say about 90 seconds you say between innings, between innings that said vote no.

But I think we have to talk about when we talk about opening day, just the nostalgia of being out at that space, at that place.

And you saw it, you felt it.

People my age and older have their childhood memories rooted in that space and it may not be around for much longer.

Yeah, well, in fact, it almost certainly won't be around for much longer one way or the other.

It seems like the Kaufman's days are numbered, and I think that's the dynamic that that that is complicate the vote on Tuesday.

I think there's a lot of folks who are voting who are inclined to vote no because they want to, quote, save the K. I'm not sure they're going to save the K, even if they vote no on this on this measure, it might go somewhere else.

Okay, Eric Westen.

Next up, a multiple choice question for you.

Take a look at this video.

Can you tell me what on earth is happening?

What are all these people lining up at the crack of dawn in biting weather doing?

Are they getting first dibs on seats for another Taylor Swift concert being getting to the polls early to vote in the stadium tax or c, just enduring five hour lines to pay their property taxes in Jackson County.

It's locked in the only place they were told they could do so by lining up outside the county courthouse in Independence.

I got here a little bit after seven understand people in the front, businesses five.

It shouldn't be this hard.

And it's it's a little demeaning being told that get here at 4:00 in the morning, sleep on the streets of Independence.

As a former Kansas resident, Jason pointed to Johnson County for inspiration.

You can you can register your spot online and they've got you walk in they probably got 1520, 25 different windows at this location.

Even legislators are weighing in.

There used to be multiple places across city halls, across different county facilities.

You should be able to do this in any one of our facilities.

And you used to be able to I don't know why this concentration all in one site, but for now, people continue to wait for answers and their turn.

This is total insanity.

And we we've got to do better.

Okay.

What is going on in Jackson County, Eric, that such a basic services now resembling the kind of lines you might see for bread in a war torn country?

Well, Mr. White, the county executive, decided that he wanted to do it consolidated into one place, whereas before it used to be grand view and other places.

You could go do that.

Now you have to go to the Independence courthouse.

It's interesting, though, because this is also the same man, Jackson County executive Frank White, who says he is here to defend and protect taxpayers with the stadium issue and now he's offending them on this issue.

Yeah, I asked him about this, too.

And one of the things he says is that his the work of local assessment officers depends on partnerships with municipalities like Lee's Summit, like Blue Valley, where where these offices were closed.

I asked him if those municipalities wanted those offices closed, and he said, Well, no, that doesn't necessarily what happened.

So so I'm not sure exactly.

He said he would be willing to take responsibility for whatever he needs to.

But he he also thinks that maybe this problem isn't necessary.

It's abysmal.

It's embarrassing.

And talk to anyone who has lived in Kansas or Johnson County and has moved across state line.

I have friends who have done it.

We have listeners who have done it.

So they've seen it work both ways.

And just to be clear, though, Dana, you'll recall a time when the Johnson County Motor Vehicle Office, where you had used to be a disaster.

And these kinds of things are so important for government because people don't interface very often with the people who want to take their money for taxes.

And when you see scenes like that or that you saw in Johnson County, when the lines went out to the door for registering cars, it's just not a good look.

But the technology has improved to the point that it doesn't need to be that way anymore.

You get a text that says, come on in and it's not perfect.

You know, you'll get a text that says you're up in 2 hours and then it'll say, you have 23 minutes to get to the line.

But the technology at least exists that we don't have that.

While Kansas City searches for a fix to its never ending homicide problem, Kansas City Police now have something else to worry about.

Skyrocketing deaths on the road.

Deadly car crashes up 85% since the start of the year.

And according to the CPD, 90% of the people killed weren't wearing a seatbelt.

Dana, that sounds rather remarkable.

We talked about this on our program today, 90%.

And we are the generation that grew up with car seats and helmets on our children.

What what is happening with the seatbelt issue?

And the mayor now wants to bring back the red light cameras that we abandoned over a decade ago now in Kansas City.

How does that solve this issue?

I think to solve the issue is you put more police out on the street, you give people speeding tickets because it has turned into a race track, driving out 71 now just driving because there's no police, because it's a shortage of police officers.

So I think that would be more effective than those cameras.

But the cameras will bring in a certain amount of money.

We'll be getting about $2 million a year at the height of those cameras.

Can you refresh our memory as to why we don't have those cameras, all because they were declared unconstitutional and illegal because of the way that the drivers of the cars were cited for violations?

You couldn't actually prove that person was driving the car.

And so the court threw them out.

I've wrote a column on this before I left the store.

I think COVID had a lot to do with this.

I think during COVID, people got used to driving very fast on very empty streets.

And once that was over, they didn't give up that it's just not Kansas City.

I mean, it's important to point this out.

Ask any police department.

They have seen a huge spike in drivers that they have pulled over going more than 100 miles an hour, which includes Saint Louis, which is why they are actually looking to enact their red light camera legislation the next few days.

By the way, last week we can review went out on the road, as you know, to bring you the stadium tax debate that we missed, talking about a number of big and sometimes befuddling local news stories.

One is that Google has announced plans to build $1,000,000,000 data center in Kansas City's north land.

The governor was in town to move some ceremonial dirt for the project along with the mayor.

This is supposed to be powering the A.I.

future of Google.

But despite the sheer size of this project, there seem to be very few curious questions being asked.

And I miss it, Brian, But there seemed to be no mention whatsoever of like Google picked this area and what type of subsidies would be available.

Kansas is giving about $1,000,000,000 for Panasonic to move to Johnson County, yet I never heard anything about this one.

Yeah, and end as far as we know, there haven't been any, at least none.

In fact, the governor did specifically say afterward that not at this time were any incentives offered to Google.

It is interesting that that Kansas City was able to draw this this this major plan.

But on the other hand, there's been a lot of interest in in technological investment, especially in the north land.

Another big development we missed because of last week's stadium debate is that Bobby World is coming to Kansas City, the world's biggest toymaker.

Mattel announcing plans to open a mega theme park near the Kansas Speedway in Wyandotte County.

It would be a showcase for its top brands, including Barbie and Hot Wheels with roller coasters and other themed rides.

It would only be the second park of its kind in the world.

Another Mattel Park is currently under construction in Glendale, Arizona.

Dana, Right.

I know you're excited one day when Taylor Swift comes to town, when there's ever a sporting event, particularly if it's about the Jayhawks or the Chiefs, How excited are you about this?

You know, it is the year of Barbie.

It is the year of the woman.

I think if this is ever going to work, now's the time.

But we all remember the Oz Museum and yeah, the wonderful Wizard of Oz theme park in Johnson County never happened.

Ooh, yeah, yeah.

I don't know.

I'm excited.

We'll see.

This is awesome for the Hot Wheels.

I grew up with Hot Wheels.

Yeah, I can't wait for that.

I hope we get to actually drive them.

And for me, it's the Pictionary and the claimable Uno structure based on the card game, I. I'm really eager to see how that shapes.

This is also a major stretch of abandoned land in Wyandotte County that's not going to be available for a royals ballpark if they decide to move to Kansas.

It's a lot of land.

Okay, so we shouldn't worry about that.

But my granddaughters are excited about it and Grandpa is getting out his checkbook as.

All righty.

Okay.

We're not doing a big story this segment this week because I won't be back in Wales for the last week, but just returning last night.

But I did see Eric that Brian Platt just got a contract extension and a more than $40,000 pay raise, which means he now gets almost twice the amount of salary as Quinton Lucas, now over $300,000 old just weeks after he was announced as a potential candidate for the city manager job in Austin, Texas.

What is the lesson here that we should tell our boss?

We want to move somewhere else so we can get a pay raise?

That's it.

And the council goes a long way and only one one council member voted no.

Melissa Robinson voted no.

You got a ton of issues going on.

The Women's Council or commission.

They wanted them to do something, but nobody got to do it.

They wanted to stay and he stayed.

So it's unbelievable.

And they don't even know what his contract consisted of.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Dana Wright, 2 to 6 weekdays on KMBZ and Brian Ellison whenever there's something important happening on KC while news and with us at the helm of next page KC Eric Wesson and Dave Helling, formerly of the Kansas City Star.

And I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.