Should Pima County hold a bond election this year?

By David Hatfield, Inside Tucson Business
Published on Friday, March 06, 2009

Have you noticed the results from the weekly online Business Pulse polls at www.AzBiz.com?

Three weeks ago we asked about the future of Interstate 10. The widening of the freeway through downtown Tucson isn’t even finished yet but the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) is looking at alternatives as to handle what is forecast to be an overcrowded freeway again in 20 or 30 years. The two options being talked about by ADOT is to either put a bypass south and west of Tucson through Avra Valley or to double-deck I-10 through Tucson.

But fully 50 percent of those who responded said a better idea is to make a crosstown loop freeway along an alignment of what is now Grant and Houghton roads. The bypass idea was selected by 27 percent of respondents and double-decking received 14 percent of the responses. Nine percent said “do nothing.” (Isn’t it amazing that nearly one out of 10 of us would say that? I suspect some day in the future when this burgh has dried up into nothing but tumbleweeds, the historians will say “this was Tucson, the town that disappeared because nothing got done.”)

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Although ADOT’s not talking about a crosstown freeway the Grant-Houghton corridor qualifies for some federal funding. And, for as much disruption as the Regional Transportation Authority’s proposed widening of Grant Road is going to make on businesses, why not stop worrying about threading a widened roadway through there and take out both sides to put in a full-fledged freeway? And do the same along Houghton Road while there’s still a reasonable chance of acquiring right-of-way that isn’t built up.

On another Business Pulse question, online readers were asked what they thought the Legislature should do about the special tax increment funding source for Rio Nuevo downtown Tucson redevelopment. The results were certainly not a vote of confidence for our city leaders.

The biggest response, 44 percent, said lawmakers should redirect all of the tax increment funding from Rio Nuevo to balance the state’s budget. Another 28 percent said the district should be kept but state officials should monitor the city’s use of the money and 16 percent want less money going to Rio Nuevo. Just 12 percent said the funding should continue unchanged.

Which brings me to a question we haven’t asked — but we are this week: Should Pima County hold a bond election in November? The county posed that question in newspaper advertisements — though, curiously, the county chose not to put the ad in the market’s only regional business publication, Inside Tucson Business. Business leaders’ opinions don’t matter?

I’m curious to see readers’ reactions as to how supportive they are of Pima County holding a bond election this year.

It won’t be scientific. But then again, neither was the county’s survey but presumably they’re asking to get some gauge on where the public stands on the matter.

So let’s offer it up.

E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.
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