Gov. Katie Hobbs signed bill to allow Maricopa County voters to decide on extending a sales tax for transportation, setting the stage for opponents to fight it at the ballot box.
Howard Fischer PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs signed legislation Tuesday to allow Maricopa County voters to decide on extending a sales tax for transportation projects, setting the stage for opponents to fight it at the ballot box.
Proponents have characterized the measure as simply giving voters the opportunity to keep in place the half-cent tax first approved in 1985. A provision in state law requires Maricopa County, and only Maricopa County, to get such legislative permission. Negotiations resulted in the bill she signed Tuesday, one with a single vote but some significant curbs on how the money could be used. Those include capping mass transit at 37% of the estimated $20 billion the tax will raise over 20 years and a specific bar against using any of the money to extend the light rail system.
The big issue has been how much goes to projects other than new or improved roads. Mussi called other projects"failed transit projects that seemingly only enrich consultants and special interests.''Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Feed | Omny Studio That comes despite a poll done by OH Predictive Insights which said 56% of those questioned support a renewed half-cent tax, with 17% opposed and 26% undecided.
"The reason I doubt the accuracy of the polling is, if it were true that spending 40% of this new tax on public transportation funding was something the voters wanted, nobody would ever have fought bifurcation,'' or the splitting of the measure into two measures for Maricopa County voters, one for roads and one for mass transit, as conservatives had sought, he said.
"The messaging has to be we're growing at a rapid pace, we've got to have our transportation funding dedicated to the roads that will allow us not to turn into L.A.,'' he said."We can't have 40% of it siphoned off for public transit that services less than a percent of the population.''
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