TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) – Though the city of Tucson and the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) have reached an agreement that will keep the city in authority, the relationship remains tenuous.
“I would recommend that we continue to work with the RTA at this time,” Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said at a special council meeting earlier this week. “We still have the opportunity to discuss further.”
The city and RTA have been in a dispute for over a year over the cost of some of the city’s underconstructed but underfunded road projects.
The partially completed Grant Road project is still $55 million short and work has been suspended.
The First Avenue expansion project, which was supposed to start in 2017 but hasn’t started yet, is about $60 million short. It was intended to widen the River to Grant road to six lanes.
When voters passed a 20-year, half-cent sales tax for 20 years, it was estimated that over its lifetime it would raise $2.1 billion to fund thousands of projects, some small like bus failures and others large such as overpasses over the I-10 freeway.
But the recession has caused funding to fall short, and with many of the Tucson projects nearing the end of the 20-year cycle, it’s the Tucson projects that have taken the brunt of the funding shortfall.
According to the RTA, the city must make up the difference if it wants to complete the projects.
The city says it is the RTA’s responsibility because it failed to account for inflation, increased labor and construction costs when voters passed it in 2006.
The budget for the project was $71 million. It is now valued at $121 million.
“The RTA really needs to look at this for itself and say if we really want to spend another $60 million on something that isn’t necessary,” said Steve Kozachik, Ward 6 councilman.
Kozachik says six lanes isn’t needed because the 2006 traffic forecasts didn’t materialize, so staying with four lanes is the right choice, but with some upgrades.
The RTA sent us a statement saying they would review whether changes to the project were “permissible.”
Former RTA chief executive Steve Christy doesn’t think changes can be made because voters have been told that this will be the project and this is the cost. The voters approved that.
“Technically there is no way for an elected official or politician to come in through the back door after the plan has been approved by the public to make changes,” Christy said.
But the city says with the RTA now underfunded, voters would welcome the changes to lower costs and complete more projects.
If not, the city may exit the RTA even after the organization made some committee assignment changes to keep Tucson in the fold.
The city voted unanimously to stay in the RTA this week, but…
“Until we see how the funding and development of the RTA unfolds, no one is going to say, yes, we’re all in and we’ll all be running down the streets with pom-poms in support of the next package,” he told Kozachik.
The RTA’s first 20-year phase is ending and it’s working on a new 20-year vision called RTA Next.
If the two sides don’t reach an agreement, it’s possible that the next phase won’t get the voter approval it needs.
“The vote we took yesterday didn’t commit us to moving to RTA Next,” Kozachik said. “They said we’ll continue the conversation, we’re at the table.”
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