What $1.7 billion buys, starting with the sewers

Nothing on Tuesday’s Kansas City ballot did better than the sewers.

Question 5, $750 million in revenue bonds to rehabilitate the sanitary sewer system, drew 81.6 percent yes, the largest margin of any question in front of city voters. Water came second at 80.9 percent. Housing, the question that got nearly all of the pre-election coverage, finished third.

More than four out of five voters said yes to borrowing three quarters of a billion dollars for pipes they will never see.

The five questions

Question 1: $100 million, Housing Trust Fund. Passed 75.6%. General obligation bonds to replenish the fund the city uses to build and rehabilitate housing for low- to moderate-income households. The city estimates the money could help create or preserve 4,761 units affordable to households at 60 percent of area median income, with any funded project required to hold that affordability for at least 30 years. Since 2018 the fund has awarded more than $61 million and produced close to 3,000 units. The 2022 version of this question passed with 71 percent; this one did better.

Question 2: $100 million, municipal buildings. Passed 69.3%. Split $75 million to the convention complex (Bartle Hall, Municipal Auditorium, the Music Hall) and $25 million to City Hall maintenance. The closest thing on the ballot to a straightforward repair bill.

Question 3: one-eighth-cent sales tax, central city economic development. Renewed, 69.2%. Not a new tax. A renewal of an existing one funding economic development in the urban core.

Question 4: $750 million, water system. Passed 80.9%. Revenue bonds for rehabilitation and expansion of the water system.

Question 5: $750 million, sewer system. Passed 81.6%. Revenue bonds for sanitary sewer rehabilitation. This one carries a federal court order behind it: the city is under a legal obligation to do this work. A no vote would not have made the obligation go away. It would have changed how the city pays for it.

The line worth reading twice

City officials say the bonds will not raise the property tax rate, because the new debt replaces debt the city has already paid off.

That is accurate and it is also doing a lot of work. “The rate does not go up” is not the same as “this is free.” It means the city is choosing to keep collecting at the current rate rather than letting the rate fall as old debt retires. That is a legitimate and ordinary way to finance capital work. It is also a choice. The other option was a lower rate.

The revenue bonds in Questions 4 and 5 work differently. They are repaid from system revenue, meaning water and sewer bills. What these two questions imply for water and sewer rates over the life of the bonds is the single most useful number a ratepayer could have. It is not stated clearly in the city’s pre-election material or in any coverage of it that we can find, and as of this writing it has not been published anywhere.

Who decided

More than 90,000 ballots were cast in Kansas City, with turnout in the Jackson County portion around 26 percent.

Roughly three in four registered voters did not weigh in on $1.7 billion in borrowing. That is normal for an August primary and no scandal. Every one of these questions passed by better than two to one, so it is hard to argue a larger turnout would have flipped any of them. But it is worth knowing how many people were in the room when the number got that big.

Corrections: corrections@kcstare.com. Something we missed? tips.