Fund the federal Clean Water Act cleanup with revenue bonds, repaid through sewer fees, not property taxes.
Shall the City of Kansas City, Missouri issue sanitary sewer revenue bonds in the principal amount of $750,000,000.00 for the purpose of rehabilitating, expanding and improving the City’s sanitary sewer system, including acquiring necessary land and rights of way, in order to provide for its continuing operation and to maintain compliance with federal, state and judicial requirements, with the principal of and interest on said revenue bonds to be payable solely from the revenues derived by the City from the operation of its sanitary sewer system, including all future rehabilitations, improvements and expansions thereto?
When heavy rain hits Kansas City, the aging sewer system overflows and pushes raw, untreated sewage into local creeks, streams, and rivers. The pollution was severe enough that the U.S. EPA and Department of Justice took the city to federal court under the Clean Water Act. The 2010 settlement documented billions of gallons of combined sewer overflow reaching area waterways and around one hundred million gallons of separate sanitary sewer overflow that had to be eliminated entirely. This is a public-health and clean-water problem the city is legally bound to fix.
Question 5 authorizes the City to issue up to $750 million in sanitary sewer revenue bonds to keep the court-ordered Smart Sewer cleanup moving: rebuilding aging pipes, pump stations, and treatment plants and building green infrastructure that keeps stormwater out of the sewers. The ballot language is explicit that the bonds are paid back only from sewer system revenues, so there is no property-tax pledge behind them.
The cleanup is not optional. A federal consent decree, amended over the years and now anchored by a 2040 deadline, requires Kansas City to capture 85 percent of wet-weather sewage flows. The work will get done either way. The only real question is how it is financed. Revenue bonds carry lower interest rates than the alternatives, and KC Water says the cost of this debt is already built into current rates. Voting the bonds down would not erase the federal obligation; it would force the city into pricier borrowing that pushes sewer rates up faster.
A YES on Question 5 lets Kansas City keep paying for the federally mandated sewer cleanup with the lowest-cost financing available. It protects the Blue River, Brush Creek, and the other waterways that overflows pollute, keeps the city in compliance with its federal consent decree, and holds future sewer-rate increases down compared to rejecting the bonds. It adds no new tax and does not touch your property-tax rate.
2010
U.S. EPA and DOJ reach a Clean Water Act settlement with Kansas City; a federal judge enters the consent decree on September 27, 2010, ordering a 25-year overflow-control program then estimated at roughly $4.5 billion.
2012
Voters authorize a first $500 million in sanitary sewer revenue bonds to begin the work.
2021
The consent decree is amended; the final compliance deadline is extended to 2040 and the program scope and cost are renegotiated downward.
April 5, 2022
Kansas City voters approve $750 million in additional sanitary sewer revenue bonds.
2024
The Third Amended Consent Decree sets the target at 85 percent capture of wet-weather flows by 2040 and lowers the total program cost to about $2.3 billion.
August 4, 2026
Question 5 asks voters to authorize another $750 million in sanitary sewer revenue bonds to keep the cleanup financed at the lowest cost.
2040
Federal deadline to achieve 85 percent capture of annual wet-weather sewage flows.
Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements, a flagship Smart Sewer project to expand treatment capacity and cut overflows.
More than 234 miles of sewer line rehabilitated under the program to date.
About 287 green acres of green infrastructure built so far toward a minimum of 480 green acres planned for the combined-sewer area, capturing stormwater before it overwhelms the pipes.
Wet-weather capture has risen from roughly 45 percent in 2012 toward an interim target near 77 percent by 2035 and the final 85 percent by 2040.
No new tax and no property-tax increase. These are revenue bonds, and the ballot itself says they are payable solely from sewer system revenues, meaning the sewer fees KC Water already bills. That is the honest part: it is not a promise that your sewer bill will never rise. Sewer rates are set separately each year and have been climbing for over a decade to pay for the federally required cleanup. What a YES does is lock in the cheapest available financing for work the city is legally ordered to do. City staff say the cost of these bonds is already baked into current rates, and that rejecting them would force more expensive borrowing that drives rates up faster.
How the financing works
Sanitary sewer revenue bonds. By the ballot’s own words, principal and interest are payable solely from the revenues derived by the City from the operation of its sanitary sewer system, meaning the sewer fees KC Water already collects. No property-tax pledge and no general-fund pledge.
Always confirm the final wording and official question order on your authenticated sample ballot from the Kansas City Election Board.
Vote on or before August 4, 2026. Polls are open 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM.