41. Transportation’s roadmap: Prop 479
Maricopa County voters have approved Prop 479, continuing critical transportation investments across the region. On this episode, hosts Juliana and Ricky chat with John Bullen from the Maricopa Association of Governments to learn how this funding will benefit drivers, public transit riders and the region overall.
Transcript
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of your daily commute?
Ricky:Or how transportation impacts the community you call home?
Juliana:Maybe you want to explore outside your community and don't know where to start.
Ricky:Well, you're in luck because this is where you hop on.
Juliana:I'm Julianna Vazquez-Keating.
Ricky:And I'm Ricky Tejada.
Juliana:We work for Valley Metro and together we'll discover all the ways that public transit enhances lives across the cities we serve.
Ricky:And we might even make some new friends along the way.
Juliana:Welcome to Storylines. Ricky, as we covered way back in episode three, Valley Metro's funding comes from several sources. Can you name them all?
Ricky:Whoa, putting me on the spot here. I don't know if I can name them all, but there's contributions from our member cities, money we collect from fare, federal funds, Oh, and of course, funding generated from the half-cent sales tax, also known as Prop 400.
Juliana:Great overview, Ricky. And speaking of that half-cent sales tax, thanks to voter support of Prop 479 in November, the existing tax will be extended to continue to support regional transportation infrastructure through 2045. The funding isn't just beneficial for transit and overall transportation. There's much more to it.
Ricky:And for this episode, we talked to someone from the Maricopa Association of Governments to help us break down all the benefits of this funding.
John:My name is John Bullen and I'm the Assistant Executive Director here at MAG.
Juliana:So, we as a transit agency understand the importance of the passage of Prop 479, but for those who may not be aware, can you briefly explain what Prop 479 is and what it funds?
John:Yeah absolutely. So Prop 479 is the continuation of Maricopa County's dedicated half-cent sales tax. So this was a sales tax that was originally put in place back in the mid-1980s. At the time, community leaders in coordination with local elected officials were looking at our existing revenue streams and the transportation network that we had and that they aspired to have in the future and quickly came to the realization that absent a new additional funding stream. They wouldn't have the type and kind of community that they had envisioned. So, at the time they work collaboratively, ultimately decided that the best funding mechanism was a dedicated half-cent sales tax here in Maricopa County. That was presented voters back in the mid-1980s, 1985, to be exact, overwhelmingly approved, and thus began Prop 300. So that was the 1st, 20-year iteration of the dedicated half-cent sales tax. Brought back to voters back in the early 2000s, 2004, for a 20-year continuation. Voters again gave us the endorsement. So that continued the tax for an additional 20 years. And then Prop 479 is really, the next iteration. So the next 20 year continuation. So back on November 5th, Maricopa County voters approved to extend the tax again for another 20 years out to 2045.
Ricky:Gotcha. And can you give us a little background? We have something here about Prop. 400. Is that when 300 became 400?
John:Prop 300 was really the catalyst for development, construction of the regional freeway system. So the sort of the initial portion of the freeway system that people are familiar with Loop 101, Loop 202, State Route 51, and that was in place for 20 years. And so, certainly additional freeway investments were needed, but with a maturing region, so to came a more diverse portfolio of transportation investments. So, in 2004 with Prop 400, they put forth a regional funding plan that still allocated funding for the region’s freeway system, but also expanded it to provide transit funding as well as arterial funding. And so, Prop 400 is what we know today, what we've been living under today, since 2006, and continues through the end of 2025.
Ricky:Are you able to highlight some of the major projects that Prop 400 helped deliver for Valley residents over the past 2 decades?
John:I think the easiest examples to point to are construction of Loop 303. So that's a facility that didn't exist prior to Prop 400. Loop 202 south mountain is another great example in the transit world. Prop 400 provided funding for both the initial construction of the region's light rail system, as well as a number of the extensions that we've seen since. It's provided funding for a number of arterial improvements. Northern Parkway is probably the largest of them. But Prop 400 has also provided a lot of funding for projects that aren't as readily apparent to everyday folks here in Maricopa County. So all those freeway widenings that you see around town, if you live in the Northwest or Northeast Valley, you'll see Loop 101 under construction. That's a Prop 400 project. Expansion of our region's HOV lanes. Those are all funded through Prop 400. A lot of the interchange improvements, a lot of the arterial street improvements for Prop 400 projects a lot of the transit park and rides that you see around town that folks can use to access the commuter bus system. Those were funded through Prop 400. So a lot of the transportation investments around the Valley have been funded through Prop 400.
Juliana:So Proposition 400 a major impact on just traffic congestion, reducing it, expanding freeways.
John:You bet. And, you know, certainly it's had a significant impact on the freeway system. Had a substantial impact on the arterial system as well as providing key funding for transit service, of course, too and really Prop 400 has been transformational. There's no question that absent a Prop 400, we wouldn't have the transportation network that we have today. In fact, you can look at number of sort of independent metrics. So ,Texas A&M Transportation Institute puts together mobility report every year, a company by the name of INRIX, puts together a report looking at congestion and in our region consistently ranks, amongst the best for peers of our size for levels of congestion.
Juliana:Mm hmm.
John:Consistently rank amongst the best for travel time reliability. So that's the time it takes you to go from home to work or somewhere on a consistent basis. That's really not an accident. That's a result of deliberate planning. That's a result of lot of coordination, lot of effort that takes place over the years. But it's also very much due to the investment that Maricopa County residents have made in that dedicated half-cent sales tax.
Juliana:So, looking towards the future, Prop 479 will also address traffic congestion, but can you tell us what specific projects are planned under Prop 479?
John:You bet. So really Prop 479 is continuing the momentum that we've built to this point. So, we have continued investments in our freeway system. We still have new freeways to build. So, State Route 30, which is the Interstate 10 reliever, the biggest new freeway that we have planned as part of the investment plan, completion of State Route 24 in the Southeast Valley. We need to finish the network. There's still portions of the system where we need to expand the HOV lanes, expand the connectivity. But unlike Prop 300, we also have investments to optimize the system to make it work better to make it work safer. So, a lot of those, investments that we made back in the mid-1980s. If you think about it, where they will be in the future, they're 30, 40, 50 years old. So Prop 479, we need to come back and rehabilitate, reassess and make the system work. And, we have continued investments as part of Prop 479, in the arterial system. So some of those roadway widenings. A lot of those are rehabilitation of the roadway, making intersections work better. Making intersections safer, expansion of technology, making sure that signals coordinate, making sure that we're being very intentional, with how traffic flows and how folks get around. And then, of course, continued investments in transit, during the plan development process, we heard a lot from members of the public that there's a desire for, more transit. More accessibility to transit. Transit going further out. And so as part of Prop 479, we've almost doubled the amount allocated to bus transit operations.
Ricky:That sounds amazing. So, with Prop 479, and all these great things coming forward, what timeline do you see for implementing these transportation improvements?
John:Yeah, great question. So, the sales tax collections begin on January 1st, 2026, so we're still a little ways out from the sales tax collections. That being said, we've been hard at work. All our member agencies been coordinating closely with our partners at Valley Metro of course. Arizona Department of Transportation, really get things prepared and queued up for successful delivery of Prop 479. And so, some of the projects you'll see pretty quickly. In fact, on the freeway side, a lot of the projects, are in really good shape to move quickly, whether that's Loop 303 Interstate 17 system interchange or a State Route 30 or a State Route 24. We're looking a couple of years out, which in transportation terms is relatively quickly. Other projects, it's a 20-year tax, so not everything can happen right away. So ultimately there's a 20-year scheduling or phasing of projects, if you will that we work closely with our partners to assess. But really that January 1st, 2026 date is a key one for us.
Juliana:With growing our transportation system, we know that there's economic benefits that come along with that. What economic benefits do you anticipate from these infrastructure investments?
John:As we were putting the plan together, and working through the process, one of the big initiatives that we kicked off was an economic analysis of the Prop 479 investment plan. Specifically, we wanted to know what its impact would be on our local economy. What its impact would be for the average resident of Maricopa County. And if you just want to take a step back and think about investments in the transportation infrastructure. Really what it does is, it saves people time. It saves people money. They have to spend less money on gas. if I'm a business instead of sending two trucks, twice a day to drop off goods with less congestion, maybe I can go down to one truck or maybe I can optimize my business anymore. And that allows those businesses to reinvest those savings back into the economy. And so when it's all said and done, what we found, is significant increases across the board in a number of metrics. We found that it's going to increase business sales by more than 110 billion dollars over the term of the tax. We found that it's going to generate new income, totaling 40 billion dollars. We found that it's going to create or sustain almost 32,000 jobs a year. And of those jobs more than 70 percent are median to high wage range jobs. So those are quality jobs that, folks want folks inspire that we worked really hard, the business community has worked really hard to grow and thrive. And so Prop 479 really put us in a position to continue a lot of that positive economic growth that we've seen.
Juliana:And you probably see a lot of businesses moving to Maricopa County for that reason, right?
John:Yeah, you bet. I think, if you look at the Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing company. You look back 5 years, Loop 303, I-17 that was open desert. And now here we sit in 2024. Facility is going up quickly. Largest ever foreign direct investment in the United States history. And it's locating at a site that really is attractive is there because of those Prop 400 investments. And so that's just one illustration. There's certainly been, a number of articles, a number of news publications that have talked about the impact of the Loop 303 corridor. You have the LG facility down in Queen Creek, locating right along the State Route 24 corridor. That's a Prop 400 investment. And so, you see a time and time again That this region is really attractive from an economic development standpoint and that these transportation investments that have been made over the years are really a catalyst for a lot of that growth.
Ricky:That sounds awesome. John, is there anything else that you'd like to add?
John:I think just that we're excited, for the next 20 years’ worth of transportation investments, as we reflect back on Prop 300, Prop 400, there's no doubt that it's been, transformative to the Valley. And so, as we looked forward to the future, the next round of investments, very much looking, forward to that continued investments. In fact, one of the things that we did, when we identified all the projects and the programs associated with the 479 investment plan, we went through a modeling exercise to figure out what it would mean grom travel perspective, and keep in mind that between now and 2050, we're projecting that we're going to add about 1.7 million residents here to the region. We're going to add about 900,000 jobs, Even with that additional growth with these improvements that we have identified as part of the investment plan. We're expecting that our average commute will stay under 30 minutes. That's astonishing because if you look at that average commute of 30 minutes, that's less than many of our peers have today. So, even with that additional growth, because we've been very intentional, because we've been very deliberate and fortunately, because we've had the confidence of Maricopa County voters to be able to make these investments we're going to be able to keep those commute times low.
Ricky:I'm excited for all the improvements John talked about that we'll see in the coming years. But what does Prop 479 mean for Valley Metro specifically?
Juliana:Well Ricky, for Valley Metro, Prop 479 funding will be distributed a little differently than Prop 400. The half-cent sales tax that's in place through 2025 has helped fund every light rail extension since the opening of the original 20-mile line in 2008. It is important to note that Prop 479 funding cannot be used for future light rail expansions. However, the 37 percent of funds allocated to public transit can still fund many of our services, including ADA accessible paratransit services and local bus service. While the money will not be used for expansions, the funds from Prop 479 will make sure our light rail fleet, tracks, and other infrastructure is in good repair for years to come. And we're also setting aside funding from the Proposition to build new park and rides and transit centers to help keep those commute times low.
Ricky:Wow, glad to hear all my half pennies will be put to good use. That's it for this episode of Storylines. Don't forget to subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice. So you never miss an episode. For Valley Metro, I'm Ricky.
Juliana:I'm Juliana.
Ricky:Thanks for riding with us.
Juliana:We'll meet you at the next stop.
Juliana:Storylines is produced by Alex Tsotsos. Peter Corkery is the executive producer. For Ricky Tejada, I'm Julianna Vasquez-Keating, thanks for listening
