Opinion: Proposition 479 helps keep annoying traffic and potholes at bay

One of the easier decisions Maricopa County residents will make on their 2024 ballot is Proposition 479 — a 20-year extension of the sales tax that helped build the prosperous community that is metro Phoenix.

Look around and you will see the fruits of the half-cent sales tax first passed in 1985. So many of the freeways we use daily were built with this tool — U.S. 60, the Interstate 10 and I-17 extensions, Loop 101, Loop 202, Loop 303, State Route 51, SR 143.

This extensive infrastructure for commerce and daily life has made this place a magnet for industry, people and jobs, a trend expected to continue well into the future. It will require a continuation of the same transportation funds to keep it up.

Greater Phoenix is still booming

Metro Phoenix is expected to grow by nearly 2.5 million people by 2060 to some 7.5 million, according to the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG).

Such is the draw of sunshine, natural beauty and commercial dynamism.

To sustain all of that, we will need to extend the sales tax and the billions in federal funding it unlocks before the half-cent tax expires in 2026.

Your yes on Proposition 479 ensures that happens.

It would fund the transportation needs of this metropolis, as identified by city, state and business leaders who make up the Maricopa Association of Government's Regional Transportation Policy Committee.

The plan was unanimously approved by the committee and MAG's regional council, composed of city, county and tribal leaders, The Arizona Republic's Taylor Seely reports.

Extending the tax helps avoid traffic gridlock

The largest share of the extended sales tax (40.5%) would go to fund freeways. Another 33.5% would go to bus transit and bus rapid transit, 22.5% to major roadways and regional transportation infrastructure, and 3.5% to light-rail maintenance, Seely reports.

With it, we will maintain our average commute time of 30 minutes through the year 2050, according to MAG.

Without the sales tax extension, our transportation systems would be "devastated," said John Bullen, MAG's funding policy manager.

"There will not be a funding source to fund the type and kind of projects that we need — not just to keep up with growth, but also to rehabilitate and optimize the existing systems," he told The Republic.

With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and the U.S. federal government investing multiple billions to erect microchip fabrication plants in Phoenix, the funding is essential to accommodate all of the new activity it has stirred .

Without the sales-tax extension, projects like the I-17 and Loop 303 interchange near TSMC wouldn't be built, Bullen said. "Look at the backups on the I-17 mainline today. It's going to be like that on steroids in a few years when TSMC opens. It's going to be a huge challenge."

An expired tax also would drastically cut available funds for maintenance, such as fixing potholes.

Proposition 479 is a necessary compromise

Legislative Republicans have opposed light-rail spending in the plan, arguing we should not spend more on light rail because it is terribly inefficient and a proven failure.

But in a compromise plan approved by lawmakers that is now before voters, the federal funding that Proposition 479 would unlock would still free up "city revenue in Phoenix, Mesa and Tempe to expand the light rail," Seely reports.

That allows cities to make their own judgments that light rail is an important part of their transportation portfolios.

Because it represents the needs and desires of the region, no one is completely happy with the plan, but it does reflect the input of stakeholders across the metropolitan area.

Greater Phoenix is an economic juggernaut. It is a place where many people have been drawn to a lifestyle of natural beauty and abundant sunshine.

Metro Phoenix's transportation and transit infrastructure must grow with it.

In our commitment to this metro region and our belief in its promise, The Arizona Republic recommends you vote yes on Proposition 479.

This is an opinion of The Arizona Republic's editorial board .