YMPO plans regional transportation conference
The Yuma Metropolitan Planning Organization’s executive board agreed during its Thursday meeting to lead a regional transportation conference next month, which could be the first step to creating a countywide plan funded by a voter-approved local tax.
The meeting, currently scheduled for April 12, is intended to draw top city and county leaders, including mayors, administrators and transportation leaders and compiling what they see as the roads that most urgently need to be built, fixed or expanded, bus routes which need to be added, bike and pedestrian options which need to be incorporated, and so forth.
YMPO Executive Director Paul Ward said he would begin seeking information from invitees before the event about their areas, and get additional feedback during the meeting, which he said would be a threehour dinnertime gathering also involving other agencies and groups involved with transportation.
These could include Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation, Greater Yuma Port Authority, Yuma International Airport, Yuma Proving Ground, Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma, American Western College, agriculture companies and other large employers, he said.
Ward said the money coming in from the state gas tax, which at 18 cents per gallon hasn’t increased since 1991, hasn’t been enough for Yuma County and its municipalities to keep up with the rising costs road maintenance and repair, let alone building new ones or widening the ones they have.
Increased fuel efficiency is also a factor, he said: “We’ve already passed the point where we don’t have enough money for maintaining the roads we’ve got right now. Even though the county is still growing, we’re driving more and more and more miles on the same gallon of gas, and unquestionably, we not only not have enough money to maintain our roadways, they’re getting in worse and worse and worse condition.”
Maricopa, Pima, Coconino and most recently Pinal counties have all gotten voter approval for additional sales taxes collected on fuel sales to build and maintain roads, collected either by the county or a separate entity, such as a separately formed regional transportation authority.
“Each one of those regions have gone out and got their own half-cent sales taxes, for transportation purposes. As a result, 85 percent of the state’s population has already found a way to fix the fact that we haven’t increased the gasoline tax in the state of Arizona. It’s not surprising, in the Yuma County case, we don’t have enough money to fix our roads,” Ward said.
Voters approved these levies because they were accompanied by a regional transportation plan spelling out how the money would be spent, he added.
Yuma County Supervisor Martin Porchas, a member of the executive board, cautioned that any ballot measure would be affected by how many other cities and school districts had tax increase proposals at the same time.
“What I would recommend would be to talk to others, like schools, AWC. We’ve talked about (Yuma County Intergovernmental Public Transit Authority) looking for some money off of that. There are a lot of entities that want it, but if people see that all together in one ballot that would be just a big no,” he said.
Ward said the timing of any election would definitely be considered before anything happened.
“The next step after this will be to hold another meeting, after a two- or three-month gap, for, ‘How are we going to pay for this?’ if we have sufficient needs and wants. And something tells me we’re going to have sufficient needs and wants, to demand some sort of additional taxes, some sort of additional sales tax, whether it be an increase in the gasoline sales tax, whatever it might be.”
Ward said he planned to send out formal invitations to the event in the next few days.
Also at the meeting, Wellton Mayor Cecilia McCullough, the executive board chair, and San Luis City Councilmember Maria Ramos, a board member, were chosen to be YMPO’s designated representatives for Arizona State Transportation Board meetings, since Yuma Deputy Mayor Gary Knight has been appointed to the state board and can no longer serve in that role.
Knight is already sitting on the board. He said Thursday his appointment by Gov. Doug Ducey has been approved by the state Senate Transportation Committee, so his confirmation by the full Senate is expected in the next couple of weeks.
Knight and Ward said it would be important for YMPO to have someone at the June state board meetings. Final approval of the state’s construction program for the next five years is expected, and while no money in the tentative budget has been set aside for widening any part of State Route 95 between Yuma and Quartzsite, almost a billion dollars haven’t been allocated to anything yet.