Kansas City voters face five bond and tax questions on August 4

Kansas City voters will decide five city questions on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, covering water and sewer borrowing, affordable housing, older civic facilities and a targeted economic-development sales tax.

The measures would authorize future borrowing or continue an existing tax. They would not approve five fully designed construction plans or make all of the money available immediately.

Election details

Polls will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on August 4. The Kansas City Election Board has posted sample ballots and fair-ballot language for the election. Voters should check the official ballot wording and polling information before voting.

Water and sewer bonds

One question would authorize up to $750 million in waterworks revenue bonds. The bonds could support rehabilitation, improvement and expansion of Kansas City’s water system, including the acquisition of necessary land and rights of way.

Those bonds would be repaid solely from revenues generated by the waterworks system. The ordinance authorizes the city to set rates and charges sufficient to operate the system and repay the debt. Approval could therefore affect future water bills, although the final effect would depend on the timing of bond sales, the projects selected, financing terms and later system decisions.

A separate question would authorize up to $750 million in sanitary-sewer revenue bonds for rehabilitation, improvement and expansion of the city’s sewer system. Like the water bonds, principal and interest would be paid from sewer-system revenues rather than directly from the city’s property-tax-backed general fund.

The sewer ordinance also authorizes rate-setting and says the council intends to structure issuance to minimize the effect on ratepayers. It does not establish a final project list, borrowing schedule or guaranteed future rate increase.

Affordable housing and older civic facilities

The third question would authorize up to $100 million in general-obligation bonds for affordable housing through the Housing Trust Fund. The ballot language covers rehabilitation, renovation and construction of houses and buildings, including blight removal, to provide affordable housing for very low- to moderate-income households.

The fourth would authorize up to $100 million in general-obligation bonds for convention facilities and government buildings constructed before 1950. Local reporting has identified Bartle Hall, Municipal Auditorium and City Hall among the facilities connected to the proposed work.

The city describes both general-obligation measures as “no tax increase” initiatives because the new debt would be issued over time as existing general-obligation debt is retired. That is a description of the proposed debt-service structure, not a permanent guarantee that city taxes can never change. The measures authorize borrowing capacity; they do not themselves approve final construction contracts or designs.

Targeted Central City sales tax

The fifth question would renew the Central City Economic Development sales tax for 10 years at a rate of 1/8 percent. The existing tax is scheduled to expire September 30, 2027; if voters approve the renewal, the new authorization would begin October 1, 2027.

Revenue would be limited to economic-development projects in the area bounded by Ninth Street on the north, Gregory Boulevard on the south, The Paseo on the west and Indiana Avenue on the east. The ballot language also allows the revenue to be used to retire debt from previously authorized bonded indebtedness or repay bonds not yet issued.

Because of those geographic limits, approval would not mean that every Kansas City neighborhood would receive direct project benefits.

What a yes vote would do

A yes vote on the bond questions would give the city authority to issue debt later, subject to financing decisions and project planning. It would not mean that the full $1.7 billion in bond authority would be borrowed immediately.

For utility customers, the key issue is that water and sewer debt is tied to system revenues and could influence future rates. For taxpayers, the housing and civic-facility measures rely on the city’s explanation that debt issuance will coincide with the retirement of existing debt. For residents and businesses in the Central City area, the sales-tax question would continue a narrowly targeted economic-development program for another decade.

The Kansas City Election Board’s official sample ballot and fair-ballot materials provide the final voter-facing language for all five questions before polls close at 7:00 p.m. on August 4.

Sources

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