In a Phoenix Biz Journal article today, Eric J Toll proclaimed (or regurgitated from an ADOT press release):
“A per gallon gas tax was always the system to pay into the fund to maintain and expand roads, but the funds are depleting faster than filling. That’s why so many places have maintenance issues.”
That statement is absolutely false. The problem is that Governor Ducey, the so-called “Republican” Legislature, county supervisors, city mayors and city councils have been “cutting taxes” via short-funding infrastructure maintenance.
For example, under incumbent Jim Lane, Scottsdale has accrued over a billion dollars in deferred maintenance. We already have the highest per capita debt of any city in the Valley, yet we just BORROWED (via bonds) $12.5 million to patch potholes. Only instead of the 140 miles of roadway repairs the citizens were expecting, we now discover those are “lane miles,” which will equate to probably half that number originally asserted. But no one knows for sure because staff can’t answer that question.
This wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t just borrowed $20 million to give to the PGA, and $2 million to subsidize a golf course operated by Phil Mickelson. Lane and his council cronies gave $1 million in taxpayer money for Super Bowl parties and promotions, not to mention the ANNUAL $4 million taxpayer-funded subsidy to the Scottsdale Cultural Council.
And I probably shouldn’t forget the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars which have subsidized polo and rugby matches for Mayor Lane’s PR manager, Jason Rose.