By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Board

Sewers and light rail are two of the hottest topics of civic interest in the spring of 2008. And deservedly so.

Kansas Citians need to spend more than $2 billion to fix their wastewater system. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is making the city take care of a problem that dumps untreated sewage in area waterways during heavy rains.

Voters later this year also will decide whether they want to build a light-rail system for hundreds of millions of dollars. Light rail could have plenty of value as an economic development tool, especially for the urban core with permanent stations at major intersections.

Here’s an update on plans to accomplish these two complicated initiatives. Some efforts are going well. But others are not.

 A consultant and several different citizens committees have worked for months on the final proposal to start repairing the sewers.

The groups have done a solid job, especially by proposing some “green” solutions. Kansas City ought to plant more trees, build more rain gardens, install more green roofs and set aside more streamway property to absorb rain and keep it out of the city’s stormwater and sewer systems.

The “Overflow Control Plan” is now in the City Council’s lap for review and approval, and will be discussed at public meetings in the next few weeks. (A copy of the plan can be found at www.kcmo.org/water.nsf/web/defaultww.)

 A funding task force has reviewed several ways to finance the sewer repairs.

However, it’s disappointing that the panel still hasn’t come up with specific solutions, except for realistically saying sewer bills are going to have to head a lot higher.

What will the city do to help reduce the bills for poor people? Will a sales tax be on the ballot soon to help pay for stormwater improvements? What’s the status of federal funding?

The citizens task force still has much work to do over this summer to eventually give Kansas Citians a broader menu of funding options.

 The Area Transportation Authority and some citizens groups are working out the final details of what a starter light-rail line would look like.

But this process is dragging on, and a final proposal needs to be wrapped up in the next few months so people would have a good idea what could be on the November ballot.

The ATA will need to bring voters a plan with a specific route and detailed funding for construction and operations.

Unfortunately, the starter line has major public opponents, which brings us to…

 Mayor Mark Funkhouser is involved in a slapdash effort to put together plans for a much larger, much more expensive regional transit system.

The “transparent” mayor apparently hopes to keep everything about the proposal under wraps until May 30. That’s when a summit of regional leaders is scheduled to discuss his transit idea, which most elected officials already are either publicly or privately dismissing.
The regional idea now has a new problem: not enough funding.

In recent days Funkhouser’s office has discovered that it can’t collect taxes for long enough to bond the kind of mega-project sought by the mayor. It could take a change in state law to get the money.

That’s the kind of difficulty something put together on the fly, without public involvement, often encounters.

Over the summer, elected city officials will have to decide how Kansas City will pay to improve its sewers and what kind of light-rail system could be on the November ballot.

Then it will be up to residents to finance the sewer repairs — and for voters to decide whether they like the light-rail plan put before them.

To reach Yael T. Abouhalkah, a member of the Editorial Board, call 816-234-4887 or send e-mail toabouhalkah@kcstar.com. Abouhalkah blogs at voices.kansascity.com. He appears on the Ruckus civic affairs program, which airs at 7 tonight on KCPT Channel 19.