Mayor: Transit tax will power economy
Stanton touts downtown renewal in last State of the City of term
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton was in campaign mode during his State of the City speech Wednesday, making a charged pitch for a transportation-tax increase that would fund a massive expansion of the city’s light-rail and bus systems.
Stanton used his most visible platform of the year to outline economic benefits the nation’s sixth-largest city has seen since the construction of light rail, along with other taxpayer investments in the once-sleepy urban core. Since the trains began running in late 2008, he said, the tracks have spurred $5 billion in investment and helped create 35,000 jobs.
The mayor spoke before a crowd of more than 1,000 Valley business and political leaders, who cheered as he announced that several major companies are planning to move to the downtown and midtown areas.
One of those is Uber, the global rideshare behemoth, which has plans to open its new global command center in downtown, bringing hundreds of jobs. He also announced that Banner Health, Arizona’s second-largest private employer in 2014, plans to move its headquarters to a building along the rail line.
Meanwhile, Stanton avoided talking about the city’s deep fiscal problems. Phoenix is facing years of potential red ink because of soaring pension costs for
“The single most powerful tools we have to drive economic development are quality streets and robust public transit.”
GREG STANTON PHOENIX MAYOR
police officers and firefighters.
Seizing the role of chief salesman at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel event, Stanton reveled in Phoenix’s urban growth and economic successes as he urged voters to support the city’s transportation-tax hike. The proposal would fund road repairs and the expansion and operations of the city’s lightrail and bus systems over 35 years.
He noted that the system has surpassed ridership goals, with almost 1 million boardings at the downtown Central Station in 2014.
“But it’s about more than getting people from Point A to Point B,” Stanton said. “The single most powerful tools we have to drive economic development are quality streets and robust public transit.”
Voters will decide the fate of the plan in the Aug. 25 city election, when Stanton, a Democrat, could also be re-elected. City shoppers would help pay for the proposal through a 0.7 percent sales tax — an increase over Phoenix’s current 0.4 percent transportation tax that’s set to expire in 2020.
The $31.7 billion price tag of the plan, which includes local and federal funding, has been controversial. Critics say it unwisely spends $6.7 billion on new light-rail lines or other high-capacity transit when most residents don’t use the system.
Councilman Jim Waring, a Republican opposed to the tax, said he was surprised that Stanton didn’t mention the city’s budget crisis, especially in the context of promoting a $31.7 billion transportation plan. He said the city’s projection of future budget deficits was the “elephant in the room that wasn’t mentioned.”
“It’s a pretty big thing to leave out,” Waring said, adding that he doesn’t see a plan to address the deficit. “I almost wonder if the transportation thing is being pushed forward to beat the rush.”
However, Stanton took aim at the concerns of light-rail skeptics, listing examples of growth along the city’s existing 17 miles of tracks.
He said voters are hearing the “same old tired arguments” against transit when the facts show it has helped reinvigorate Phoenix’s core, with the addition of Arizona State University’s downtown campus and dozens of residential projects. The mayor also suggested light rail played a key role in bringing Super Bowl events downtown.
“We know a strong urban core is great for everyone: It helps alleviate congestion and the effects of growth in every neighborhood, keeping the quality of life higher for all of us,” Stanton said.
Beyond his heavy emphasis on transportation, Stanton provided an update on the main goal of his speech last year: making Phoenix a global economic competitor by ending its dependence on construction and creating an ideas-based economy.
Stanton cited foreign trade as an example of progress. Arizona, which often lags other states in foreign trade, increased its exports to Mexico by 22 percent last year, he said. Attributing much of the state growth to the Phoenix region, he cited the city’s role in opening a trade office in Mexico City and efforts to prepare companies to sell their products abroad.
He announced the launch of the “Phoenix Innovation Games,” a series of competitions aimed at generating creative fixes to city problems. Residents will be asked to come up with ideas to questions like how to increase recycling or improve commutes for public-transit riders.
The mayor said the city’s investment in its downtown Phoenix Biomedical Campus, a cluster of research and education facilities, had a $1.3 billion economic impact in 2013. He said the city is building on that by supporting a 1,000acre health-care corridor in northeast Phoenix with ASU and the Mayo Clinic.
Stanton’s speech was more business-focused than some of his past addresses, when he emphasized hot-button issues key to his liberal base, such as gun safety and gay rights. His agenda has taken a more centrist turn in the past year.
The loudest applause came when Stanton called for some children of undocumented immigrants, often referred to as “dreamers,” to receive in-state tuition at Arizona’s public universities.
“I don’t think he’s stepping back from being a progressive mayor,” said Robbie Sherwood, a Democratic political strategist in the Valley. “He’s moving on to the next big thing, which happens to be transportation.”