Learning from the past
Big dollars are at stake in next year's transportation vote ... We look back to when it all began.
Just like they did two decades ago, local officials are gearing up to convince voters to spend a ton of money on a sprawling transportation plan.
The public review process is beginning on the RTA Next plan, which needs voter approval in November 2025 to go ahead with a half-cent sales tax to pay for $2 billion worth of projects over the next 20 years.
Given the obvious parallels between the launch of the Regional Transportation Authority’s first transportation package in 2006 and the plan to extend it next year, we wanted to see what local residents, and elected officials, were saying as they entered the same phase we’re in now.
So we plowed through local newspaper archives from 2004 to 2006.
Today, the task for local officials is to convince voters to keep going with the RTA Next plan, in large part by showing what they’ve accomplished with public money over the past 20 years. That was one of the big questions the Tucson City Council wrestled with earlier this week.
But back in 2005, the city council had a very different problem. Officials were watching the local road system strain under the weight of decades of population growth, without much investment in transportation.
And they couldn’t get Tucson voters to support big funding measures. Four different deals died at the ballot box, dating back to a $1.6 billion package in 1986. The Arizona Daily Star’s editorial board wrote in March 2005 that “things have gotten much worse in the nearly 20 years since then.”
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Even with all the rejections from voters, officials felt like they had the wind at their backs.
Although state legislators refused to raise the gas tax to fund more local transportation projects, they did pass a law allowing for the creation of the RTA in 2004, which gave officials the tool they needed to bring together Pima County, the City of Tucson, local towns, and tribes.
The first task of the new RTA was to get local officials on board, which they managed to do over the objections of some, like Tucson City Councilman Steve Leal. He worried that city tax dollars would be “exported” to affluent areas outside city limits, while the city struggled to meet its own transportation needs.
Councilman Jose Ibarra was skeptical that the city and county could cooperate at all.
“What makes us think that suddenly we’re going to come together in this community—in a regional transportation authority—and get anything done?” Ibarra said.
But others, like Councilwoman Carol West, were convinced that voters rejected previous funding measures precisely because they weren’t regional.
“This is something the public wants. They want us to work together,” West said.
Like we’ve seen over the past year, local officials made all sorts of compromises to get the plan off the ground. When the draft plan was unveiled, Star columnist Jim Kiser pointed to an overlooked moment that made it all possible.
The legislation that opened the door for the creation of the RTA also gave veto power to Tucson and Pima County. But Supervisor Ramon Valadez got the other supervisors to waive that right. That put pressure on Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup to get the Tucson City Council to make the same “sacrifice,” which they did, creating a truly regional approach, Kiser wrote.
Today, many local officials already are on board with some version of a regional transportation deal, but they haven’t quite worked out the details.
Members of the Tucson City Council have indicated they won’t sign on until the city’s taxpayers get their fair share of the RTA Next projects. And there are some dealbreakers, like Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham saying this week he’d withdraw his support if a project on 22nd Street gets tossed aside.
The next task for backers of the RTA plan two decades ago was to convince voters. And that’s where it got really interesting, and probably shows what’s ahead of us now that the public review process is beginning for the RTA Next plan.
The RTA unveiled a 95-project wish list in March 2005. The list was a first draft, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said at the time.
“There will be a second, third, fourth and, probably, a fifth draft,” Huckelberry said.
And there were. The RTA held dozens of public meetings. They added and cut projects. Widening Grant Road. Extending Kolb. Building a new 22nd Street bridge or one on Snyder Road. Creating a light-rail system or a less expensive streetcar line. Building bridges on any road that crosses a wash. Adding millions of dollars to keep wildlife safe on local roads.
The list went on and on. Meanwhile, people complained the “growth lobby” dominated the citizens’ advisory committee. Letters to the editor criticized people for moving to the area and buying a house a long drive from their work. Some said the plan should only be five years, not 20, and focus on maintenance. Why wasn’t there a cross-town highway in the RTA?
After all those meetings and changes, the plan was ready to go to voters.
“Take 2(billion) as needed for congestion,” was the headline for a Tucson Citizen column by Barney Brenner. He was writing the week before the election and predicted “more than three-quarters will exercise their apathy, not their franchise, and more than $2 billion in tax increases will hinge on a small margin of voters.”
In May 2006, voters approved the $2 billion plan. About 25 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. That was enough to set officials off and running, cheering on a regional approach to government.
“It’s the new way to do business,” Oro Valley Mayor Paul Loomis told Star columnist Kiser.
Amid the enthusiasm, what they couldn’t see on the horizon was the global financial crisis that would come crashing down on them.
Local officials watched as sales tax revenue evaporated following the crisis, which put pressure on them to cut or delay some projects they had promised voters they’d complete.
And that’s a big reason why officials might have to work a little harder if they want to convince voters to extend the RTA sales tax next year.
If you want to dig through local newspaper archives yourself, check out Newspapers.com. (They’re not paying us to say this. We’re just big fans.)
