LOCAL ROAD BUILDING SCAM

The local nabobs have decided that we need to increase the sales tax to mostly (58%) pay for roads. This will total $2.1 billion over the next 20 years but there's a problem: It won't solve the transportation mess.

Choked freeways will just get worse
Think motorists on city's edges are fed up now?
By Tim Ellis
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson,
Arizona Published: 03.19.2006

Radio and newspaper ads tout Tucson-spawned development in such distant locales as Red Rock and even Picacho Peak, in southern Pinal County, where up to 200,000 homes and 500,000 new residents are expected in the next 20 years.

Plans and funding for roads to get those city expatriates to jobs in the greater Tucson area are another matter. Parts of Interstate 10 and Oracle Road are being widened to ease rush-hour congestion, but officials admit there's not enough money to build fast enough to catch up with the population.

John Strobeck, a Tucson housing analyst, said he sees little vidence the exodus of Tucsonans to far-flung areas will stop anytime soon — although, he says the local housing market has slightly slowed from "a high level of frenzy" to simply "a normal frenzy." By 2010, Strobeck predicted,
40 percent to 50 percent of the homes built for people who work in Tucson will be outside Pima County — mainly in Pinal, but also in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties.

And for those thinking the $2 billion regional transportation plan might relieve some of the strain, think again. Neither I-10 nor Oracle Road is included in the plan.

We've been told over and over by the developers, realtors and car dealers that "growth pays for itself" but that is a LIE.

Money for road work in increasingly short supply
By Tim Ellis
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 03.19.2006

On May 16, Pima County voters will be asked to approve a $2 billion transportation
plan and half-cent sales tax, both of which city, county and Regional Transportation Authority officials say aren't enough to meet the need.

Marana began collecting a 1 percent construction sales tax in 1998, and later raised it to 2 percent, most of which goes into transportation, said Jim DeGrood, assistant town manager.

Marana also began collecting a half-cent sales tax in 2004 for transportation improvements, he said, and charges impact fees to help pay for streets in and around developments.

Even with all that, DeGrood said, "I don't know that anyone can say that we'll keep up, because frankly, these are measures that are only preventing the gap in transportation funding from getting even greater."

Ultimately, government officials of all stripes agree the solutions must go beyond just building more and more roads and should look to more carpooling, public transit and other alternatives.

The only REAL solution is to discourage sprawl and encourage growth within the city. Of course, we also have to do something about the speculators that have driven up the cost of housing in Tucson:

Commuters get creative to beat the local traffic
By Tim Ellis
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 03.19.2006

Looking outward is a growing trend, as Tucson's red-hot housing market has pushed up the cost of housing beyond a point that most people find affordable, said John Strobeck, a Tucson housing analyst.

And even though most home buyers probably give at least some thought to the distances involved, Strobeck said, "Most people don't really think about the transportation problem."

"You see a house out there, you're going to find a way to get that house, and then later find a way to get to work," he said. "That's usually how it works."