The LJWorld voter’s guide was published this past weekend (10/19/2025). Here is my detailed answer to the second question about the MSO Campus:
- The city’s MSO campus under construction at LawrenceVenture Park has an estimated, final price tag of about $100 million. Do you support this project, including its size and scope? Why or why not?
The MSO campus was initially planned to be built in 5 phases over at least 8 years. This would have broken the project up into smaller pieces to be paid for over a longer period. Instead, like many aspects of the post-pandemic era, the City decided to do too much, too quickly, compressing the campus construction into 2 phases to be built over 3 years.
While the MSO department will benefit from this new campus, I do not support the scope, cost, and timing of its execution. It is the largest investment our City has ever made, costing $130 million while only expected to save $2 million per year in operating costs.
But the question is, can our community afford $130 million in debt? The City is paying for some of this debt by increasing the City utility fees every year, starting in 2020. This week we learned that the City plans to increase City water/wastewater rates every year through 2042. This means that these utility costs will increase 44% in the next five years and a whopping 75% total increase between 2025 and 2035. This is unsustainable.
I would like to see the project slow down after the completion of the first phase to provide utility relief to Lawrence residents. The second phase of the MSO campus is a $65-million-dollar project. Rather than building the second phase now, the City could save for this future project and reduce utility fees to provide relief to Lawrence residents now. We can use the existing completed facility to secure the longevity of the MSO equipment and fleet that is currently in the flood plain at 11th and Haskell.