Voters living in Tucson’s suburbs and nearby towns helped bring down the county’s road bond plan last week, an analysis of voting data shows.
Precinct results from last Tuesday’s bond election shows voters in Marana, Oro Valley, Vail as well as many residents in the eastern and southern edges of the city rejected Proposition 425, the $200 million proposal for roads.
Political observers on both sides of the issues said prior to the election that the road bond plan had the best chance to pass in the seven-question, more than $800 million package the county presented.
Support for the road bonds was strong in Tucson’s center, especially along major streets like Grant Road, Speedway and Broadway, the Star’s analysis found.
The measure would have set aside $160 million to fix roads throughout the county, $30 million for the proposed Sonoran Corridor project and another $10 million to build road in UA Tech Park.
Many felt they simply couldn’t afford the cost of approving more bonds, said Joe Boogaart, a spokesman for Taxpayers Against Pima Bonds.
He said many voters said they felt approving the roads plan rewarded officials who let the roads fall apart in the first place.
“A lot of people felt it would be condoning bad conduct, because we haven’t been maintaining the roads for the last twenty years,” Boogaart said.
He added voters are still paying off the last county-wide road bond measure.
Voter turnout for the county-wide election was nearly 39 percent, compared to slightly over 43 percent in the November 2014 election.
