Meddling lawmakers out to kill light rail ... and, possibly, the roads we need to grow

Here’s something to contemplate next time you’re late for work and cruising along the freeway at a speedy 7 miles an hour.

It could be worse.

In fact, it soon may be far worse for us all, thanks to the meddling busybodies in the Arizona Legislature.

Legislature wants its own transportation plan

It seems the far-right crowd that runs the place despises light rail.

So much so that they’re willing to block Maricopa County voters from deciding whether they want to continue funding a locally approved plan to expand the Valley’s freeways, arterial streets, buses and yes, those hated light-rail trains.

Apparently, these Republican legislators know better than the Valley’s mayors, tribal leaders and county leaders, who unanimously approved a regional transportation plan that was at least five years in the making.

Apparently, they know better than the Valley’s business leaders who warn that failure to continue funding a well-balanced transportation system in this, the fastest growing county in the country, will stifle economic growth and chase away good jobs.

And they absolutely think they know better than the county’s voters who in 1985 and again in 2004 approved the half-cent sales tax that built Loop 101, 202, 303, an expanded bus system and yes, those danged choo-choos.

Bill prohibits any cash for light rail expansion

On Monday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a bill to authorize a public vote to extend the county’s transportation tax – but only on the condition that not so much as a penny of the money be used to expand light rail.

Even then, the bill’s sponsor warned that it may not pass the Republican-controlled Legislature.

“This is on life support,” House Appropriations Chairman David Livingston, R-Peoria, warned the Maricopa Association of Governments and others who oppose Senate Bill 1122.

The current tax expires in December 2025 and unlike every other county in the state, Maricopa cannot ask voters to extend it without the Legislature’s approval.

The MAG plan was approved by the Legislature last year only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey, who breaks out in hives at the mere mention of taxes – even just an extension of one we already pay.

We can't build freeways wide enough for this

Now we have a new Legislature, one that views the business community with suspicion and dances to the tune of the far right and the Arizona Free Enterprise Club – people who apparently are willing to forgo both the billions of dollars in matching federal funds and the economic development that has popped up along the light rail lines.

They see light rail as wildly expensive and lightly used in the wake of COVID-19 and increased telecommuting, ignoring the fact that a transportation plan isn’t about what’s happening now but about what will be happening in 2050.

No more peas and guac? Lawmakers dislike freeway sign messages

They just want to build freeways, never mind that they won’t be able to build them fast enough or wide enough to handle the explosive growth that’s headed our way in the next 25 years.

Or that their plan might not pass in Phoenix and Tempe, where the roads already are built.

Livingston’s bill would put 39% of the revenue toward mass transit … as long as it doesn’t run on a rail.

Other Republicans want to slash bus service as well.

Without rail, the plan could fail at the ballot

The cities, meanwhile, prefer their own regionally approved plan, one developed after hundreds of public meetings and untold hours of negotiation. It calls for 40.4% of the funds to go to mass transit, with up to 14% for light rail expansion.

Count Marty Shultz, a longtime mover and shaker who worked on both the original 1985 transportation plan and the 2004 expansion, among those worried about the stalemate. So much so that he’s come out of retirement to try to convince the Legislature to put MAG’s plan on the ballot.

Shultz believes any balanced plan must include an expansion of light rail in order to pass. Failure at the ballot box, he warns, would put a “serious crimp” in our economy.

“I’m fearful we’re going to lose momentum and lose strategic opportunities in Arizona if we don’t continue to invest in the transportation system,” he told me.

Shouldn't light rail's future be up to voters?

There’s good reason to feel that way.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the battle over the tax could threaten the expansion of a massive semiconductor manufacturing campus under construction in north Phoenix.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. choose Phoenix in part because of the (Proposition 400-funded) Loop 303. Its first factory is set to open next year, and the company already has announced plans to open a second plant in 2026, with more possibly to come.

Don’t, however, look for that to impress our far-right freedom folk, who seem to embrace a “my way or the highway” (with each in his own car) approach to, well, everything.

I get why the Republicans don’t like light rail. It’s expensive and their constituents don’t use it.

But Maricopa County voters approved it. Shouldn’t it be our call whether to continue it?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Republican war on light rail could leave Maricopa County with a mess