Sports Team Gets Millions from MO Despite Budget Shortfall

From the Washington Examiner:

Missouri will provide $25 million in tax credits to the Chiefs, part of which will help finance a new indoor training facility at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph.....

That sounds really nice for the Chiefs, but is Missouri really in a position to give such gifts to sports teams?

In December of 2008, we produced the initial Fiscal Year 09 Gross Revenue consensus estimate which was for 3.4% growth.  This was revised in December 2009 to a decline of 4.0%.  As of today June 15, GR has declined 5.4%, and I would not be surprised to see it end the FY with a decline of around 7.0%. 

In dollar terms, the difference between 3.4% growth and a 7.0% decline is approximately $785 million. The FY09 budget was built on a growth assumption of 3.4%, but we left around $390 million unspent, the combination of this unspent balance, plus the Governor withholding $186 million so far, and the Governor transferring $250 million from the enhanced Medicaid payments to GR is how the FY09 budget is being balanced. The FY10 budget is based on an initial consensus estimate of 1.0% growth, but this was based on FY09 revenues that only declined 4.0%, not 7.0%.  So even if we hit the 1.0% growth rate in FY10, the Governor would need to withhold to balance the budget.  I won’t know what the FY10 deficit will be until I know how we finish FY09 and how much the Governor vetoes.

We spent approximately $711 million of federal budget stabilization funds on on-going programs in the FY10 budget.  This left us $966 million in federal budget stabilization funds to be used in the FY11 budget, but since we Truly Agreed & Finally Passed the budget, the Governor transferred $250 million to GR to pay tax refunds. This leaves us enough to replace what we spent in FY10, but nothing else to help with our GR deficit.

To sum all that up, like many Missouri families, your state government is really having to tighten its belt to make ends meet.

With all of this, the KC Chiefs still got their millions???

Wasteful or Wonderful?....You decide.