In response to the news that Pima County administrator Chuck Huckelberry wants to take sweep money currently allocated for road repair and spend it instead on more soccer fields, County residents are circulating a online petition.
Edward M. Robinette, a homeowner in Pima County District created the petition and very quickly it is gathering signatures intended to stop the shift of funds. The petition demands preservation of County’s road infrastructure and demands desperately needed repairs.
For years, under the management of Huckelberry the County’s infrastructure has crumbled. Four members of the Board have virtually ignored the residents’ concerns and have gone so far as to shift what little money Huckelberry allocated for roads away from District 1, when Supervisor Ally Miller dared to ask tough questions about the budget and spending priorities.
“We can’t afford $8.75mil for dirt to build soccer fields-especially when the down payment will come from your road repair money,” said Miller of Huckelberry’s soccer scam
The petition reads:
Our roads have been crumbling for years and they continue to be ignored. If we are truly going to attract corporations to set up business in Pima County, we need a solid infrastructure. That starts without roads. A short drive around our region will quickly display how little value our County puts on basic infrastructure. It is incredibly important that we stop kicking the can down the road and reverse the trend of pillaging our road funds for pet projects.
To:
Ally Miller, Pima County Supervisor, District 1
Sharon Bronson, Pima County Supervisor, District 3
Ray Carroll, Pima County Supervisor, District 4
Richard Elias, Pima County Supervisor, District 5
Ramon Valadez, Pima County Supervisor, District 2The roads in Pima County are in severe disrepair. Chuck Huckelberry has once again recommended the board take 35% of the 2014-2015 road repair budget ($1.75M of the already paltry $5M allocated) and use it to put a down payment on land for more soccer fields in the worst part of Tucson. We need our road infrastructure repaired. The justification that we need $300M to fix the roads as a reason to whitewash the $1.75M as miniscule is thick-headed. That doesn’t even begin to cover the full cost of these fields. I implore you to not only keep road funding in tact, but to seek to increase funding to repair our road infrastructure in the years ahead. We cannot become a transporation hub with the roads we have. The people of Pima County spoke loud and clear during the 2013 bonds survey. We want the roads fixed and we are tired of Chuck Huckelberry ignoring us.
Respectfully,
Reasons resident gave for signing the petition include being “tired of playing dodge pot holes with my car,” the fact that “property taxes are higher than the rest of the state, we need to get them more in line with other counties.”
One commenter, who identified herself as Diane Sanchez wrote, “I am tired of the fiscal irresponsibility. There is so much wrong with Tucson, its time to start fixing things, not buying more land!!!”