For Star subscribers: The Arizona governor says her deal would let Maricopa County voters decide whether to extend a half-cent sales tax for road and transit issues.
Howard Fischer and Bob Christie Capitol Media Services PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs says she has a deal backed by a majority of lawmakers from both parties to let Maricopa County voters decide whether to extend a half-cent sales tax for road and transit issues.
MAG has made major changes to the plan it submitted last year in response to demands from Republican leaders, with a frustrating lack of success, said Kenn Weise, the mayor of Avondale who chairs the group. Hobbs started taking the lead in negotiations with the Legislature in recent weeks, he said. "We will put up the plan that is best for the citizens, not the best for bureaucrats," the Gilbert Republican told Capitol Media Services."Clearly President Petersen is paying attention to a slim minority of his caucus that apparently wants to hold our regionally approved transportation plan hostage," said the Tucson Democrat. He called the Republican leadership"tone deaf" to what political and business leaders have worked out with the governor and say they want.
Toma said he remains willing to negotiate with Hobbs and MAG. But he said it is the governor and the regional planning agency, not the GOP, that is endangering a deal on the levy to finance the road and transit projects the state's largest county for the next two decades to spur economic development.If neither side blinks, that leaves the future of the sales tax, first approved by voters in 1985 and extended for 20 years twice before, in limbo.
It starts, said Sen. David Farnsworth, R-Mesa, with the fact that fares from riders cover just 7.5% of operating costs.
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