Hobbs Kills Maricopa County Transportation Funding

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, June 20, 2023

Hobbs Kills Maricopa County Transportation Funding

PHOENIX, ARIZONA— Although Governor Hobbs and the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) have publicly supported allowing voters to choose the fate of Proposition 400, Tuesday's veto of SB 1246 confirms their support is contingent on limiting voters to a singular choice: advancing their inefficient, big-government agenda.

The MAG Prop. 400 "extension" brought to the Legislature was anything but an extension – it was a transportation plan built by bureaucrats for bureaucrats. Unlike the current half cent sales tax, where most of the revenues have been reinvested in the roads used by taxpayers, MAG's proposal shifted the majority of funds to the most inefficient transit system in the West and a $3 billion slush fund for new, undefined uses that have never been needed in the last 40 years of the tax, such as removing vehicle lanes.

The Republican Prop. 400 extension proposal killed by the Governor is a transportation plan for taxpayers. It continues prioritizing the use of revenues for freeways and roads, while requiring MAG to justify their worst-in-class transit programs to voters in order to receive increased funding, which would be up to 37% of revenues, if voters approve both questions presented to them within our proposal.

During MAG's Regional Council Executive Committee meeting Tuesday, following 45 minutes of public testimony supporting SB 1246 and opposing MAG's revised comment process, MAG Mayors escaped to Executive Session and never resumed their open meeting. MAG clearly does not want to defend their inefficient programs at the ballot box.

Republicans delivered Governor Hobbs a true extension of the economic development tool Maricopa County has relied upon to fund transportation projects the last 40 years. SB 1246 enhances the business attraction and job creation elements of the tax, trims the wasteful spending, and gives voters an actual choice on whether to fund poor performing transit pipe dreams. Governor Hobbs has denied voters that choice, prioritizing bureaucrats over taxpayers at the expense of the economy.

###

For more information, contact:

Kim Quintero

Director of Communications | Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus

kquintero@azleg.gov