From: "Friends of Transit" To: Subject: Recent article in the Tribune about Proposition 400 and its impact on the East Valley. Date: Monday, October 18, 2004 5:55 PM P R O P O S I T I O N 4 0 0 E.V. crossroads Streets, intersections would be upgraded under program By GARIN GROFF TRIBUNE Proposition 400 would touch the lives of East Valley residents more so than in any other part of the Valley. That's because the plan will widen the region's streets and intersections to ease congestion on trips to the supermarket, movie theater or video store. The $15.8 billion plan on the Nov. 2 ballot sets aside for local street improvements 9 percent of the money raised by an extension of a half-cent sales tax. That translates to 275 miles of wider roads and 34 improved intersections. Every one of those intersections is in the East Valley. And more than 200 miles of street improvements are in the East Valley. The notion of funding local street improvements with a countywide transportation tax is a new one. Street projects received no funding in a 20-year transportation tax that expires in 2005. Proposition 400 would extend that same tax program another 20 years and put $1.4 billion toward better streets and intersections. Critics say these projects aren't of regional significance, but Mari- copa County mayors who developed Proposition 400 said the East Valley needs better roads so drivers aren't stuck in traffic on their way to a freeway. "It's kind of the best of both worlds," said Mesa Mayor Keno Hawker. "You get your regional impact. You get your local impact." Proposition 400 would widen Pima and Scottsdale roads north of Loop 101 to bolster capacity on the few northsouth routes in that region. The plan also widens roads with significant regional traffic, such as Shea Boulevard east of Loop 101 and Power Road from U.S. 60 to Queen Creek. Most of the road improvements are in Mesa. The improved intersections are scattered across Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa. The plan generally calls for additional turn lanes at those spots. That kind of improvement has triggered criticism that cities should fund these types of projects. "Why are the Maricopa County taxpayers paying for intersections in Chandler? " asked Dave Thompson, a Gilbert business owner who is chairman of the No on 400 campaign. "This is not a regional plan." Thompson's group wants 90 percent of the money to go for freeways. Transportation activist Jane White said the plan encourages pork barrel spending by including local street projects. The Scottsdale resident is especially critical that the plan sets aside $87 million for a tunnel that would carry traffic under the runway at the Scottsdale Airpark. "We could do our own stuff cheaper, better and faster if we had to do it ourselves," White said. "We wouldn't pay $87 million for a tunnel under the airport, but it's free money." White supports most projects in the plan, but opposes regional funding for anything but freeways. Mayors who helped draft the plan included the streets to get back the money their taxpayers put into the plan, she said. That prompted marginal projects in some cities so mayors could claim their communities are getting their fair share of funds, White said. Mayors said the street projects are essential to the East Valley and Scottsdale because the need for transportation projects in established areas is shifting away from freeways. The cheapest way to bolster travel times is with better roads and intersections, they say. "The few critics that there have been have not done their homework," Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross said. "If they had been at the table with us the last couple years, they wouldn't have made a lot of the comments they made." Scottsdale's street improvements are regional, Manross said, because the city has more jobs than residents. She noted the Scottsdale Airpark is the Valley's third-largest job center. The tunnel would ease traffic woes for more than Scottsdale taxpayers, she said. "It is regional in significance because of the number of jobs at the airpark, because people come from all over the Valley," Manross said. "It benefits much more than just Scottsdale." Manross added the tunnel plan requires more study. If the tunnel is not built, the plan requires that funding go toward other road projects in the same region of the Valley. Likewise, the plan will widen roads around Williams Gateway Airport in the East Valley. Hawker said that part of Mesa is set to be a regional job center with 100,000 workers. Hawker and Chandler Mayor Boyd Dunn note some road projects extend from Loop 202 to Pinal County, which will add a million people in 20 years. Those Pinal County residents would choke the East Valley in traffic without the road funds in Proposition 400. "We're going to have more and more pass-through traffic and to make that workable, you're going to have to do the major arterial improvements," Dunn said. _____ To Unsubscribe, Please Click Here