Funding Decisions Will Define Tucson’s Transportation Future—what will it look like?

This is a pivotal moment. What’s prioritized now is what will get built.

As you may already be aware, the RTA (our region’s voter-approved twenty-year ½ cent sales tax to fund regional transportation investments) is due to sunset in 2026. Pima Association of Governments (PAG) Regional Council is hoping to go before voters to renew it well before then. For many reasons, the City of Tucson has lost out repeatedly with the current RTA. It’s the reason Downtown Links and Broadway Blvd. had to happen in the way they did (they were on the voter-approved project list), and many of the City’s projects have been severely underfunded because of increased inflation costs from when the budget was initially established 15 years ago. Additionally, the City of Tucson only has 1 vote of 9 on the Regional Council (PAG’s decision-making body) despite having over half of the population. This makes for an inequitable decision-making process, where the City is underrepresented. Mayor Romero has asked for a more equitable voting structure and so far nothing has taken shape.

The City of Tucson’s Prop 101 which funds resurfacing of our streets, is also set to sunset very soon (mid-year).

For all of these reasons, the City of Tucson is exploring its opens when it comes to future ballot initiatives. Just last week, Mayor & Council reviewed a proposal from City Manager, Mike Ortega, to do a ½ cent sales tax that would fund [primarily] neighborhood street resurfacing. They’re exploring many possibilities,—including leaving the RTA—but whatever happens, this is a HUGE DEAL and will have HUGE implications on what our future transportation funding landscape looks like in Tucson. There is an opportunity here to prioritize MoveTucson and fund the projects that Tucsonans want and need, and the question is: what’s going to be the best way to do it? 

Mayor & Council have until February 1st to decide if they want to hold a special election for a Prop 101 renewal, so they’re on a very tight deadline. 

PAG Regional Council meets on January 27th and whatever they decide will inform what decision the City makes. There have been a number of articles in the past week about this topic: an op-ed by Ruth Reiman and Jane Evans about First Avenue, an article by AZ Daily Star contributor Tim Steller, and another by Sam Kmack. We at LSA will be paying close attention as this moves forward and encourage you to do the same.