While her fellow supervisors wait for staff to come up with a plan to repair failing infrastructure, Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller has released her plan to fix the County’s roads. In a letter to constituents, Miller says the “deplorable conditions of our roads is the biggest issue facing our region.”
Miller claims that the failing infrastructure is “stifling business growth and driving down home values.”
Unlike her fellow supervisors who “have been silent on solving this pressing issue, while blaming others for the problem,” according to Miller, she “developed a plan to finally repair our disastrous roads.”
Miller claims her regional plan will provide over $1 billion for road repairs without raising taxes.
Miller’s plan would utilizes 3 sources of revenue:
1. Extend RTA and dedicate 50% of sales Tax to Road Repairs
• Generates $250M for Pima County
• Generates $429M for Cities within Pima County
2. Don’t issue anymore 1997 HURF Bonds
• Generates $257M
• Frees up HURF dollars as debt is paid off
3. Allocate HURF Money to Road Repairs – $73M
• $73M Initial funding to “Jump start effort”
• Put road money (HURF) dollars back were they belong
“This is a Regional road repair plan for all jurisdictions of Pima County and most importantly doesn’t raise taxes on already overburdened taxpayers. This plan will inject $1 billion dollars into road repairs for the region over the next 20 years. In 1997 the Pima County taxpayers who voted for $350 million of road bonds weren’t aware these bonds would be paid back with the gas tax monies meant for road repairs. As a result road repairs have been neglected for more than 20 years. This plan allocates monies based on population and is a sustainable based on very conservative 1% annual increase in sales tax revenues over the next 20 years. It is time the Pima County board of supervisors cuts back on wasteful spending and focuses on the core responsibilities of county governance,” stated Miller. “I hope other supervisor candidates join me in moving this plan forward as a starting point for negotiations.”
“This plan lays out details for stakeholders to begin negotiating and hammering out a final plan,” continued Miller.
Miller concluded, “The previous authorization for RTA focused on new roads and road widenings only vs. repairs. Due to the stagnant growth and projected slow growth it now makes sense to allocate 50 percent of the 1/2 cent countywide sales tax to regional road repairs.”