Pima County seeks funds to finish 2006 construction projects

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(The Center Square) - Pima County voters will decide next year whether to extend a half-cent sales tax for another 20 years to fund a construction referendum.

Residents in the Arizona county will vote in March on a $2.67 billion plan to finance projects across the Tucson area. The measure is coming at a time when projects have gone over budget, including work on the Downtown Links transportation corridor.

And that has led the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute to raise questions over what it calls mismanagement of taxpayers' money.

In September, the Pima County Board of Supervisors agreed to put the sales tax extension, proposed by the Regional Transportation Authority based in Tucson, on the ballot. The RTA is a political subdivision created by the Arizona government and managed by the Pima Association of Governments.

As part of the $2.67 billion, Pima County is asking for $257.6 million to complete the original plan approved by voters in 2006. In this plan, county residents approved the original half-cent tax increase to raise $2.1 billion for construction-related projects.

However, according to a Pima Association of Governments news release, additional funding for the 2006 plan’s project is needed partially due to the shortfall created by the 2008 recession and the increased project costs.

The Downtown Links project is a 1.3-mile corridor connecting Maclovio Barraza-Aviation Parkway to the Interstate 10 frontage road, according to the Regional Transportation Authority. The original operating budget for the project skyrocketed from $76 million to $110 million, according to the Goldwater Institute. William Beard, a municipal affairs liaison for the Phoenix public policy research and litigation organization, told The Center Square the project is more than 40% over budget. Beard wrote the institute's report, "Municipal Mismanagement or Malfeasance in Tucson?"

In October, RTA approved Tucson’s eighth request for additional funding to complete the project, which is anticipated for early 2026.

The Downtown Links project was supposed to be completed in 2021, the Goldwater Institute said.

Beard told The Center Square that Tucson keeps delaying projects, which increases costs. He noted the city never seems “to set aside extra funds to handle whatever inflation would naturally occur for those delays.”

If things keep being delayed, Beard questioned whether city taxpayer money is being spent wisely.

He added he doubts Tucson can meet its completion deadline.

Even though Tucson agreed to pay for itself if any project exceeds 10% of its original budget, the city isn’t doing so, Beard said.

Tucson residents are frustrated with how the city has handled the project, he noted.

The Downtown Links project is part of a bigger set of projects, but is “indicative of some of the problems” Tucson and the RTA have “in delivering what was promised to the voters," he said.

According to Beard, the concerns regarding the sales tax extension are about whether Tucson will follow through on its promises to voters.

“That’s an awful lot of taxpayer dollars,” he noted.

If voters approved the plan, the new 20-year extension would start in July 2026.

The Center Square reached out to the Pima Association of Governments, but did not receive a response before press time.