Kansas to provide $28 million for the World Cup, under budget approved by lawmakers

Kansas will provide $28 million for the World Cup as Kansas City prepares to host matches in 2026, under a state budget the Legislature on Friday sent to Gov. Laura Kelly.

The funding is part of a $25.1 billion budget, which includes state and federal dollars. The budget provides funding to bring approximately 500 residents with intellectual or physical disabilities off a long-running waitlist for services and $75 million for a new cancer research center at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Nearly $16 million is also included to pay for the deployment of state resources under the control of the Kansas adjutant general to aid Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border control efforts. Kelly, who is the commander-in-chief of the Kansas National Guard, is unlikely to approve sending personnel or resources to aid Texas, which has clashed with the federal government over the legality of its efforts.

The House voted 78-44 to approve the budget, followed by the Senate in a 26-12 vote. Kelly, a Democrat, will likely sign the budget but can issue line-item vetoes of individual spending items. The budget was one of the last major pieces of legislation passed by the Legislature on Friday before it adjourns for several weeks.

The World Cup funding was highly sought by KC2026, the committee overseeing Kansas City’s role in the sprawling soccer tournament. The group had originally wanted $25 million to $35 million from Kansas, placing the approved state funding squarely within that range. Missouri has previously committed more than $50 million.

The funding will come in two chunks – $10 million in the budget year that begins July 1 and $18 million the year after. All the dollars were originally federal pandemic aid provided to Kansas.

Rep. Troy Waymaster, a Bunker Hill Republican and chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said dividing the funding across two years allows lawmakers to monitor how the money is spent.

“It’s a major event that’s coming to the Kansas City metro area,” Waymaster said, indicating lawmakers don’t want to leave the impression they don’t want to participate. “But we also want to be good stewards of the money.”

In approving funding for the World Cup, supporters overcame early skepticism from some lawmakers, who doubted how matches played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City would benefit Kansas beyond the metro area. “I wonder what the people of Kansas would say to me if we spent $30 million in Missouri,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said in January, summing up the ambivalence of legislators earlier this year.

Supporters emphasized the projected benefits. When Kansas City plays host to the World Cup in the summer of 2026, officials expect massive economic windfalls for the whole region as tourists travel from around the world. Kansas was involved in the pitch for Kansas City to be a host and the state gave Sporting KC $10 million last year to make improvements ahead of the event.

While the games themselves will be at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas will host training facilities and base camps for visiting teams. Those locations will include Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, and Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence among others.

Materials from KC2026 provided to lawmakers in January estimate $163 million in direct economic impact to the state. At $28 million, Kansas will constitute 17% of KC2026 funding sources.

“I think this is an opportunity for Kansas. We’re going to have a spotlight on our region and I think it could be something that we could use to bring more businesses and highlight what Kansas has to offer,” said Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat who also sits on the KC2026 board of directors.

Sykes abstained from voting on the budget, citing a conflict of interest.

Texas deployment

The budget also includes $15.7 million to deploy sources to Texas “to prevent drug and human trafficking and other crimes contributing to an emergency,” according to an official summary of budget documents.

In including the funding, Kansas lawmakers joined a wave of Republican officials across the country who are sending – or attempting to send – National Guard personnel and resources to aid Texas’ border control effort, called Operation Lone Star.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson in February announced he would send up to 200 Missouri National Guard members and 22 State Highway Patrol troopers to the Texas border with Mexico.

The Texas initiative is separate from federal border enforcement activities. The dual efforts, which include a dispute between Texas and the federal government over the use of razor wire, have escalated into a broader standoff between state and federal officials.

Republicans across the country have sought to draw attention to the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Federal agents have reported more than 285,000 encounters at the border from October through December, according to federal data.

“You can watch the nightly news and see why the border is important to us,” Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said.

“We’ve let in more people, probably than four or five times the population of our state, and that’s going to change our country. It’s not that you don’t want an immigrant to come, it’s that you don’t want all the illegal activity.”

Asked in March about the possibility of sending state resources to Texas, Kelly made clear the call rests with her.

“I am the commander in chief of the Kansas National Guard. I make those decisions,” Kelly said.

On Friday, Waymaster all but acknowledged Kelly would line-item veto the funding. “I’m trying to say this without implying what the governor will do, but I think we all know what’s going to happen to this,” Waymaster said on the House floor.

Rep. Henry Helgerson, an Eastborough Democrat, called the funding “a political attempt to put the governor in a bad situation.”

Fighting waitlist

The budget approved by the Legislature provides $45.8 million to deliver services to hundreds of additional Kansans with intellectual or physical disabilities.

More than 5,000 Kansans with intellectual or developmental disabilities remain on a waitlist for supplemental Medicaid services. More than 2,000 Kansans with physical disabilities are also waiting for services.

Kansas lawmakers for years failed to add funding to remove people from the waitlist as it has grown from under 500 in the early 2000s.

The budget includes enough additional funding to take 500 people off the waitlist.

Home and community support waivers fund services people on Medicaid disability need to accommodate their disability in daily life. That can often mean support staff in the home or a day service so those with intellectual and developmental disabilities that is similar to what they may receive in special education.

The Star’s Kacen Bayless and Katie Bernard contributed reporting