No slowdown in activity for the Board of Supervisors this summer. Typically, there’s a lull until after Labor Day, but this has been a sizzling season for issues of importance to the Greater Vail area.
First, it was Project Blue, the proposed data center complex located just north of the Pima County Fairgrounds. The Board narrowly approved the required rezoning of the 290 acres and well as the almost $21 million purchase and sale agreement last month. Now the project is before the City of Tucson Mayor and Council. I encourage you to contact your councilmember with questions, concerns, and support as the Pima County portion of the project is complete.
Our focus has now shifted to the future of Pima County’s Regional Transportation Authority. My association with the RTA is intimate and long-termed, as 20 years ago; I served as a member of the original Citizens Advisory Committee.
Then a New Car Dealer, I represented the road improvement and enhancement community on the CAC (take that as “Better car travel getting from Point A to Point B”) and the counter balance, those who supported more transit initiatives (supporting more public transportation such as the Modern Streetcar, buses and more bus routes, bicycle lanes sidewalks and pedestrian crossings).
The CAC met monthly for more than a year, listening to presentations about all things transportation, spanning from special interests groups, neighborhood associations and community leaders to even environmental groups who advocated wildlife bridges over major thoroughfares. As our meetings progressed, the original RTA plan developed into a comprehensive and regional approach addressing countywide transportation issues. The plan delivered something for everyone involved.
One thing stood out as an integral, foundational element of the RTA – the public had no faith in government delivering such a plan. Accordingly, the State Legislature’s authorization to create the RTA stated that once the voters approved the plan:
* It could not be altered or amended, without certain restrictive conditions,
* The State’s Auditor General would certify the financials every five years,
* An oversight committee of citizens would monitor RTA projects,
* The mayors of the Cities of Tucson, Marana, Sahuarita, Oro Valley, South Tucson, the Nations, a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, and the Southern Arizona member of the State Transportation Board would all oversee the RTA implementation,
* Each RTA Board Member would have one vote,
* The established half-cent countywide sales tax revenue would be solely for RTA transportation projects, with that dedicated funding mission unalterable.
For almost twenty years, the RTA has operated effectively this way. Everyone who travels throughout our region has experienced the enhanced and improved regional transportation network, courtesy of the RTA implementation of the plan, voter approved in 2006. It was my honor to serve as the RTA Chair for five years as a member of the State Transportation Board representing Southern Arizona.
There’s no disputing there was a major revenue challenge during the Great Recession that caused a shortfall of monies for the RTA and this has proved problematic today. A number of City of Tucson projects were pushed to the end of the 20-year RTA plan, at Tucson’s request, so the City could build the Modern Streetcar system first and the funds for these deferred City projects are not there now. And therein lies the issue today.
As the RTA’s potential renewal draws near, the Mayor of Tucson and certain members of the City Council have been waging a war against everything RTA; its plan, its funding, its voting methods, its charter and foundational policies, and finally, its now-former CEO, Farhad Moghimi.
Following the resignation in March of Supervisor Grijalva, my colleague Supervisor Matt Heinz, who shares much of the City of Tucson’s animus towards the RTA, became the Board of Supervisors’ RTA representative.
Coming in like a wrecking ball, Supervisor Heinz orchestrated the firing of the RTA CEO and the resignation of the RTA legal counsel, both having served the RTA for most of its existence. These losses created an institutional memory void that will be hard to fill. RTA business stagnated with no legal counsel and threatened a mass exodus of valuable long time employees, jeopardizing the RTA’s future.
Because of this tumult, and the very real possibility that the RTA and its funding will expire next year, Supervisor Heinz has been floating the idea of instituting a “bridge funding plan” until a future RTA plan goes to the voters. His plan centers on creating a new countywide sales tax.
This new sales tax would have none of the RTA’s legal guardrails and could be changed or altered at any time by a mere majority vote by the current Board of Supervisors or future Boards of Supervisors. That means no state audits, no “sunset” to end the tax (even when a future RTA plan is voter approved), and no restrictions whatsoever as to how the tax money is spent.
The one ray of sunshine on this nonsense is that the Board of Supervisors must vote unanimously for the tax to pass. That will never happen. I will vote against it.
Given this Board majority’s priorities, it is conceivable that they, or a future Board just like it, can at any time determine that the regional transportation plan really is not needed after all, and that the new sales tax revenue should fund public housing projects, battling climate change, or any number of their other irresponsible inclinations. Yes, all it would take is a simple Board majority vote.
Our Southeast Region, and the Greater Vail community, desperately needs transportation projects to meet current needs and future growth. Urgently needed projects include the proposed Colossal Cave road improvements, the Mary Ann Cleveland safety corridor completion, and the improvement of Houghton Road south to Sahaurita Road.
We must all fight for these projects and they can’t happen without the RTA. It’s time for the RTA Board of Directors, and Supervisor Heinz, to get to work, develop a new plan, present it and ask the voters to pass an RTA plan for the next 20 years. We must improve (and just fix) the roads!
Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy, District 4
33 N. Stone Avenue, Floor 11
Tucson, AZ 85701
520-724-8094
district4@pima.gov
