Well, that was an unexpectedly pleasant U-turn.
The city of Tucson abandoned Tuesday its threat to leave the region’s transportation organization, a move that would have meant reworking how we pay for big road and transit projects in Pima County.
With that resolved for now, the Tucson City Council then offered an unexpectedly sweeping and attractive deal for city voters: Extend an existing half-cent sales tax in a May vote, they said, and we will ensure every neighborhood road is repaved over the next 10 years.
It would shock me if Tucson voters, who are probably united on the need for comprehensive road repairs, reject that offer.
Council members Kevin Dahl and Lane Santa Cruz, two of the newest members of the council, sounded thrilled to bring it to voters.
“When I was campaigning, the No. 1 comment was the streets,” Dahl said. “Once you hear that every day, you see that every day. It’s in the poor neighborhoods, it’s in the rich neighborhoods.”
Added Santa Cruz: “I’m super proud that we can go back and tell our neighbors and constituents that, in the next 10 years, yes, their neighborhood streets are in the queue for getting fixed.”
Two big differences distinguish Prop. 101, the five-year tax increase that expires June 30, and Prop. 411, the ballot issue Tucson voters will be asked to consider in May that extends the half-cent sales tax. One is length: 10 years in the new proposal versus five in the one we passed in 2017.
The other is that Prop. 411 doesn’t include any money for public-safety capital spending. Sixty percent of the tax money from Prop. 101 went to police and fire vehicles and other public-safety equipment. This time, none of the money from the sales tax would go there, though the city manager committed to spending $18 million per year on similar expenses out of general-fund money.
In the new ballot proposal, neighborhood road repair would receive 80% of the tax money. But I am especially excited that 20% of the money would go to traffic safety measures especially for pedestrians and cyclists. That could amount to $15 million per year in sidewalks, HAWK pedestrian crossings, protected bicycle routes and lighting.
In a city that has started the year with six pedestrian deaths in one month, traffic safety improvements are crucial.
City’s demand wasn’t realistic
This all might have turned out differently if the city had stuck to a demand that, in the end, was unachievable.
Beginning last year, Mayor Regina Romero, backed by the City Council, demanded proportional representation on the Regional Transportation Authority’s top board. The city makes up more than half of the county’s population but only gets one out of nine votes, equal to much smaller jurisdictions like the town of Sahuarita and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.
This led to a year of wrangling, some of it at board meetings, some of it in back rooms, some of it on the Star’s editorial page. Marana Mayor Ed Honea was on one side, pushing for some version of the status quo, and Romero was on the other, pushing for big changes.
As it turned out, changing representation on the authority’s board would have required the Legislature to act, something Honea said he would ensure the Republican-run Legislature would not do. Other changes in voting proposed by Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott would have required the governor’s approval.
Thanks to the partisan divide, that probably wouldn’t have happened either. In fact, even bringing the RTA to the attention of the Legislature and governor could be risky on its own.
What let the city out of its box was a proposal by Ted Maxwell, a new member of the RTA board representing the Arizona State Board of Transportation. Maxwell is also president and CEO of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council.
He proposed adding city representatives to the Citizens Advisory Committee so that they will make up 18 of the 35 members — a majority. And he proposed adding an additional city representative on the Technical Management Committee, an important RTA group made up of city managers and other high unelected officials, as well as increasing city membership on the citizens committee reviewing revenue and project progress.
If that sounds like a pretty thin olive branch, it struck me that way, too. In fact, I asked Maxwell on Friday if his plan, which the RTA board agreed to unanimously, amounted to a face-saving measure for the city. But he said no — it’s substantial.
“I believe it actually gives the city what they were asking for at the beginning of the discussion. That is, they wanted more voice. There’s no denying under that proposal they have more voice.”
Tricky details still remain
It’s true the Citizens Advisory Committee is central to designing the planned RTA Next, and this is key to the next period of regional transportation projects. The current RTA plan and its countywide, half-cent sales tax expires in 2026. Regional officials are trying to come to a new plan and bring it to voters before then.
But beyond the big work of designing the next plan, there are also tricky details that could bring back the city-RTA conflict and get in the way of a new plan.
One is the city’s dissatisfaction with Farhad Moghimi, the executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority. When I talked to council member Steve Kozachik Friday, he referred to Moghimi as “a big part of the problem” with the RTA, an opinion many city representatives have expressed. Other members of the RTA favor him, though.
At the Jan. 27 meeting, Maxwell proposed a “360” performance evaluation for Moghimi. This is one that involves not just the board that oversees him, but also co-workers, people he supervises, community members he deals with and others. It would be by far the deepest review Moghimi has ever received.
Another key: Dealing with the projects that were to be funded in the initial 20-year RTA plan but still have not been completed, and now cost more than projected due to inflation. Think, for example, of Grant Road and other projects in Tucson.
If city voters are to support extending the regional tax, they’ll need assurance those big projects get done first.
But at least, if they vote for Prop. 411, they can count on smooth neighborhood roads and safer crossings for people who dare to walk and bike.
