Report details K.C. infrastructure needs

? Despite investing millions dollars into addressing a backlog of crumbling streets and other infrastructure, Kansas City faces a backlog of $753 million, according to a new report.

The backlog is slightly more than it was 10 years ago, even though city leaders began investing millions more dollars in the late 1990s to deal with deferred maintenance, the Chamber of Commerce report concluded Wednesday.

“Kansas Citians stand at a crossroads in terms of infrastructure and deferred maintenance,” the report said. “Kansas City still has over three quarters of a billion dollars’ worth of deferred maintenance, and that number will grow at an alarming rate if no new funding is found.”

The report recommends some solutions that mirror Mayor Kay Barnes’ agenda and others that conflict with positions she has stated.

For example, the chamber’s report supports the city’s proposal to issue $200 million in general-obligation bonds.

But it also endorses increasing the city’s water rates, something Barnes has resisted.

Mayoral spokesman Steve Glorioso said Barnes shared the chamber’s concerns that the city needs to aggressively address its maintenance problems.

“That’s why she has been proposing for several months that we ask the voters in April to approve at least a $200 million bond issue to accomplish that goal, which would not require a tax increase,” Glorioso said.

Glorioso said he thought the backlog situation was not quite as dire as the chamber’s report made it sound.

“Due to 10 years of inflation since 1993, the city is in better shape to catch up on deferred maintenance now than it was at the time,” he said. “Because $750 million is a lot less today than in 1993, and it is a smaller percentage of the overall budget.”

The report was done by Ed Wolf, who retired earlier this year as Kansas City’s public works director, and consultant Jamie Green, a former assistant director of the Heavy Constructors Association of Greater Kansas City. Wolf and Green said the chamber wanted to highlight the problem, and potential solutions, because of the importance streets, bridges, parks, city buildings and other infrastructure have in attracting and retaining major businesses.

The chamber report commended the city for increasing its investment in infrastructure, especially since 1997.

But the report also found that since the recession hit in 2002, the growth in maintenance funding had stalled. Civic leaders had recommended in 1997 that the city increase its maintenance budget by $5 million per year, with a goal of reaching $60 million annually.