Tim Steller's column: Success of RTA Next hinges on finishing Tucson projects
Driving down East Grant Road is not a great advertisement for the Regional Transportation Authority.
Some stretches of the long-awaited widening are complete. Some stretches are in process. Some significant segments haven't started at all, 18 years after voters approved the tax to establish the authority and complete projects like widening East Grant Road.
Now two clashing factors are coming into focus: The RTA board has set an election for voters to approve a new, 20-year extension of the sales tax that funds the RTA next November, yet there is not enough money to complete the Grant Road project now.
In fact, the East Grant Road project isn't the only one that still is not funded. A re-do of North First Avenue within the city of Tucson remains unfunded, too, as my colleague Charlie Borla reported Monday. The shortfall is $195 million, RTA spokeswoman Sheila Storm said in an email.
This shortfall has been becoming evident for months, despite city officials' recently spiking protestations. But that doesn't really matter.
What matters for proponents of regional transportation planning, myself included, is the massive political challenge that results from the shortfall. The RTA begins 13 open houses Wednesday night, Nov. 6, in Marana to sell the RTA Next plan to the public. That open house begins at 4 p.m. at Wheeler Taft Abbett Sr. Library, 7800 N. Schisler Drive.
Here's how Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott, the county's representative on the RTA board, explained the political pickle to me Tuesday:
"The projects that need to be completed are all in the city. That's also where the majority of the voters are in the RTA Next election."
In other words, now is not a great time for the RTA to be disappointing voters in the city of Tucson, or their representatives on the Tucson City Council.
Of course, these factors are all extensions of problems that the RTA has had for a long time. The timing of the projects was a politically and financially fraught decision made at the beginning. While the City of Tucson got a big project, the streetcar, partially paid for by the RTA, early on, many of its other projects were scheduled at the end of the 20-year time period.
The Great Recession reduced tax revenues, and later the cost of materials and construction soared. That hit the city hard compared to some of the region's other jurisdictions.
Not only are the two unfunded projects in the Tucson city limits, but because of financial shortfalls, four other projects were pushed off from the current RTA plan into the RTA Next plan that voters will consider in November.`
Two of those, too, are inside Tucson city limits: 22nd Street from Interstate 10 to South Kino Parkway and North Houghton Road from East Broadway to East Tanque Verde Road. The other two pushed into RTA Next are: North First Avenue from East Orange Grove to East Ina roads in unincorporated Pima County and North Silverbell Road from West Camino del Cerro to West Ina Road, in both Marana and the county.
"When we did that, over two years ago, there was the hope and expectation that there would be enough to complete all the remaining RTA projects," Scott said.
It wasn't enough. So, the excitement of the streetcar, which has proven a success, has long since worn off, while city voters are seeing other projects slowly move forward or be put off altogether.
This is not a recipe for success in November 2025.
In fact, the sharp disagreement on display at the RTA Board's Sept. 26 meeting shows that, as it stands, it will be hard to build the coalition needed to sell the RTA Next project to voters.
Mayor Joe Winfield of Oro Valley proposed using $70 million programmed for Tucson's bus-rapid-transit project for a contingency fund instead. After some back and forth, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero snapped at him.
"This is a ridiculous conversation," she said. "I understand there's concerns, but there's no jurisdiction that sits around this table that loses more by jumping into the RTA with you."
This is the underlying dynamic that frames much of the RTA debate. City officials have repeatedly pointed out that they could get hundreds of millions more in funding if its voters were to pass a city-only half-cent sales tax than by doing what's in the RTA Next plan, which must be approved by the whole county's voters.
And the future of the RTA hinges on city voters.
So how can the RTA leave two key projects, worth $195 million, undone in the city? If the RTA wants the support of city voters, it must find a way to get those projects done and not just by telling the city to figure it out. Otherwise, many voters will rightly consider the promises in the RTA Next plan to be empty.
Contact columnist Tim Steller at or 520-807-7789. On Twitter:
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