From: "Friends of Transit" To: Subject: Mayors make last drive for Prop. 400 Date: Thursday, October 28, 2004 5:49 PM Mayors make last drive for Prop. 400 Sales-tax extension measure slips in polls Pat Flannery The Arizona Republic Oct. 28, 2004 12:00 AM Spurred to action by a slide in the polls, seven Valley mayors and two vice mayors made last-ditch pleas for voter support of Proposition 400, saying the fate of the regional transportation plan will dictate the Valley's future. At a Wednesday news conference, they accused the plan's opponents of waging an expensive misinformation campaign that could cost the Valley jobs and economic growth if the measure fails. An analysis by the Maricopa Association of Governments estimated that $1.4 billion in freeway projects and 35,000 jobs would be lost over the next six years if Proposition 400 failed. Even a year's delay in extending the local transportation tax would cost $300 million and indefinitely delay construction of the West Valley's Loop 303 and widening of the East Valley's U.S. 60, it said. The proposition's foes, however, said Wednesday that even if they succeeded in killing the plan, there would still be plenty of funds for highway construction and time to craft a better measure. Voters will be asked Tuesday to extend Maricopa County's half-cent transportation sales tax for 20 years to help fund the $15.8 billion plan. Fifty-seven percent would go toward freeway construction or expansion; 17 percent to expanding the regional bus system; 15 percent to expand a light-rail system already being built in Phoenix and Tempe; and 9 percent to arterial street improvements. "This is the best example of regional cooperation . . . we've ever had here," Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross said. "We can't afford to fail here." The mayors of Phoenix, Glendale, Litchfield Park, Chandler, Youngtown and Guadalupe and the vice mayors of Mesa and Tempe joined Manross. They are concerned by polls showing declining support for the measure. A recent Arizona Republic Poll said 58 percent of respondents supported Proposition 400, down from 65 percent only two weeks earlier. The Yes on 400 committee's own internal tracking polls also showed substantial slippage in the past two weeks, though campaign consultant Chuck Coughlin declined to disclose the results. Camilla Strongin, spokeswoman for the opposition No on 400 committee, said the slide indicates strong public disagreement with the mayors' position. While she declined to pass judgment on MAG's figures indicating how many projects or jobs would be lost, Strongin took issue with the mayors' dire predictions. "This is not a do-or-die situation," she said. "There's an election for a reason. (If it is rejected,) we believe MAG will come up with a better plan." Still, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs urged citizens to vote their own selfinterests, saying if they did so, the measure would pass, because every city in the Valley would receive what a majority of its residents said they wanted during several years of public hearings. Gordon also defended light rail, the lightning rod of opposition, saying, "We want light rail because . . . we don't want to destroy neighborhoods and businesses. We're not going to be like Los Angeles, where they double- and triple-deck freeways." Opposition leader Dave Thompson, a Gilbert businessman, has said he would push for legislative adoption of an all-freeway transportation plan next year that would add more new freeway projects. No such plan yet exists, however. The mayors Wednesday dismissed Thompson's promises, saying it took several years to create the current plan under the best of circumstances, without considering partisan politics that would make legislative solutions difficult. Last week, House Speaker Jake Flake, R-Snowflake, said the decision belonged in local hands, not the Legislature's. Strongin said it would be in the mayors' interest to help lawmakers draft a new plan if Proposition 400 fails. If regional planning does not involve MAG, several billion dollars in transportation funding would be lost under federal regulations. "Name one MAG member willing to leave federal money on the table," Strongin said. "We don't believe MAG will be willing to act that irresponsibly." Though MAG analysts say even current projects will be delayed by rejection of the proposition, Strongin believes "there is still a lot of money there to continue projects." _____ To unsubscribe, please Click Here