Strapped for cash for transportation projects, Mayor Bob Walkup and the Tucson City Council are hoping voters will approve a half-cent increase in the city sales tax in a special May election.
Walkup and Co. hope that Tucsonans are frustrated enough by driving conditions that they’ll be willing to pay more taxes–the rate within city limits would rise to 8.1 percent with passage of the proposal–for street relief. Voters rejected similar countywide half-cent sales-tax proposals by 57 percent in 1986 and 61 percent in 1991.
The city would split revenue from the tax, which will raise an estimated $40 million a year, into three main categories: 45 percent would go to expanding a few roads (primarily Houghton Road on the city’s east side) and building three expensive grade-separated intersections; 37 percent would be spent on repairing residential streets and installing sidewalks, streetlights and other amenities; and 18 percent would be spent on the transit system.
The city will spend a bundle of tax dollars “educating” the public on the importance of the proposal. The development community can also be counted on to run a six-figure campaign in favor of the proposal, especially since so much will be spent on the booming southeast side.
Critics have assailed the plan as a subsidy for the road-loving Growth Lobby. A transit group that supports a light-rail system, Tucsonans for Sensible Transportation, announced last week that it would formally oppose the proposition (see this week’s Skinny). But it remains to be seen if a grassroots effort can counter a well-funded campaign.
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2002.
