By Mark Carlisle Independent Newsmedia

After voting not to fund a light rail service in Glendale last month, City Council and city staff must now decide what to do with the millions of dollars in funds freed up by choosing not to pursue the expensive project.

The city’s Transportation Department estimates that Glendale now has $162 million available between now and 2042 that was planned to go toward light rail. After a wide-ranging discussion about possible uses for the money during the City Council meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 9, the Transportation Department will take the spending plan to the Citizens Transportation Oversight Committee during its Feb. 1 meeting for review and input before taking the plan back to Council in April or May, at which time Council is planned to make a final decision.

Staff from the Transportation Department presented a spending recommendation for Council review and guidance.

Assistant City Manager Jack Friedline said the staff’s goal is to make the plan "a living, breathing, working document used by our transportation staff to accomplish day-to-day operations and a long-term capital improvement program."

The $162 million came from funds already saved or planned for future spending on light rail from a 2001 half-cent sales tax increase. Proposition 402 specified that this tax revenue was to go toward the city’s Glendale Onboard, or GO, transportation fund. Light rail was originally listed among nine priorities on the proposition, but, after much debate over many months, Council decided in a 5-2 vote Dec. 12 that the cost of light rail would outweigh the benefits, freeing up this money to be used for other transportation projects in the city.

The full sum is not available to the city immediately, but will become available by 2042. The city had already set aside $42 million for capital costs of light rail and had planned to save an additional $16.8 million by 2021, according to Transportation Planning Administrator Jack Lorbeer. The city planned to spend $47.7 million on two bonds to help pay for light rail and $55.9 million would have been needed for operations and maintenance costs on light rail lines between now and 2042.

Mr. Lorbeer said $42.7 million will be available for spending between now and 2022, $24.7 more in 2023-2032 and most of the money coming on the back end — $95 million in 2033-2042.

The recommendations the Transportation Department presented to Council Jan. 9 will not necessarily be what is ultimately spent. The department will next seek input from CTOC before bringing the plan, including any edits, back to Council in April or May to OK the plan or make any final changes.

Additional transit received the biggest portion of funds, 35 percent, in the Transportation Department’s recommendations. Streets and highways received 27 percent, 25 percent was slotted for existing program extensions, 7 percent for bicycle and pedestrian and 6 percent for information technology solutions/transportation systems management (ITS/TSM).

Glendale has recently been funded by the Maricopa Association of Governments to start a bicycle and pedestrian plan for the city, Mr. Lorbeer said. The city will work with MAG to hire a consultant to start the process and is planning $10 million in funding for the program.

Jerry Weiers

City staff’s presentation went into detail on many of the categories, leading several members of Council to comment that the topics were too wide-ranging for them to make any final decisions that day.

"I don’t know how we can actually answer this question that you’re asking us, because there’s so many pieces to this," said Mayor Jerry Weiers.

There are ways that the saved money, though it was earmarked for transportation, could be used for things other than transportation projects.

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Councilman Bart Turner of the Barrel District brought up the possibilities of reducing the sales tax and using the saved money to offset the lost tax revenue or using the saved money to free up general fund money that is used for transportation.

"We have, I think in the neighborhood of $900,000 to $1 million of general fund money each year that goes to transportation," Mr. Turner said. "…This windfall (of money) might be able to lighten the burden on the general fund by funding those needs out of the windfall and then free up money in the general fund that could be used for other needs throughout the city."

Mr. Friedline said Transportation taking less money from the general fund was under consideration. He also said that staff had not considered a reduction of the GO tax.

"We feel we still have more needs than we have money," he said, adding that Council could certainly reduce the task if that was its consensus.

Councilman Jamie Aldama recommended, in addition to seeking input from CTOC, that the city seek input from residents as well

Jamie Aldama

"Now you have this money available and here are some of the things we think we can do with it, or would you rather reduce that tax going forward?" Mr. Aldama said they should ask residents.

Councilman Ray Malnar of the Sahuaro District said he already new what residents’ input was and suggested a partial reduction — 0.05 percent or 0.1 percent — of the sales tax in combination with funding transportation programs.

"Councilmember Aldama suggested we should see what our constituents want to do. I’ve already heard what they want to do," he said. "They believe our sales tax is too high, and they would like to see our sales tax reduced."

He added that when the GO tax was implemented, City Council made the decision and then sought residents’ permission, via the ballot, to implement the tax. He didn’t think the same process needed to be followed for the opposite action.

"If we want to reduce that GO tax, I don’t think we need to ask the permission of the people if they want to be taxed less," Mr. Malnar said. "I think the consensus would be, ‘If you want to reduce taxes, please do it.’"

Mr. Malnar said there were many important transportation needs to fund, but suggested a conservative approach to that funding while giving what they could back to the taxpayer.

"When government finds extra money, they always find a way to spend it. I would like to find a way to perhaps not spend it by not taxing it," he said.

This chart shows suggested spending for individual programs. The list excludes the bicycle and pedestrian program, which is recommended to receive $10.68 million from light rail savings. This recommendation will not necessarily be what is ultimately spent. City Council is planned to make the final decision in April or May. [Graphic by Mark Carlisle/Independent Newsmedia][/caption]

Mayor Weiers said that though he is very conservative, he was wary about a reduction of the GO tax due to the likelihood that current transportation tax revenues would decrease in the future.

"I would caution everybody, before we start talking about tax breaks, to look in the future with the amount of electric cars that are coming along, with the amount of HURF (Highway User Revenue Fund) money that we know is probably going to be reduced, gasoline vehicles getting much higher miles per gallon, which means less tax money coming back to us."

Councilwoman Joyce Clark of the Yucca District said her top transportation priority was transit.

"(When I voted against light rail), I felt that that money could be better spent on transit, especially serving those areas of the city that might be economically deprived," she said.

Joyce Clark

Transportation Department staff was asking for Council’s priorities as part of their input, and though some priorities were voiced in conversation, Ms. Clark was the only one to list her priorities.

"I will start off by saying: bus transit, bus stops... making sure that there is enough funding for new speed cushions — humps… I think airport development is a priority, and I think major intersections like Bell (Road) and 83rd (Avenue) are a priority, at least for me," she said.

Mr. Turner also mentioned bus transit expansion as a priority. Noting that the presentation mentioned much of this money is available immediately, he said he would like to see services expanded as soon as possible.

"Because those people who depend on bus service, it is crucial to them in their lives and their abilities to get to work," he said. "And a good, sound bus system also reaps other benefits with taking cars of the streets."

Transit Administrator Kevin Link said the expansion of fixed route service will happen "as the funds become available" in accordance with the timeline Mr. Lorbeer laid out earlier in the meeting. Mr. Link also said that he has a priority list of specific projects, but did not include that list in the presentation.

Ms. Clark said that she would have liked to see more of those specifics in the presentation.

"I want to know, over the next five years, how do you plan on spending that money? What are staff’s recommendations for projects and the associated costs with them?" she asked.

Mayor Weiers said that while he approved of all of the suggested projects, though the city wouldn’t be able to fund all of them as quickly as it might like, he felt that developing a strategy for a smoot rollout of the projects was important.

"What I don’t want to do is get a whole bunch of buses out there, if we’re then going to turn around and tear up intersections where the buses are stuck out there with everybody else," he said. "…I can’t sit here and tell you which is the most important to me; they’re all important, virtually across the board. But I’d hate to do one thing and then do what government is so good about doing and a year later turn around and tear it back up again because now you’re doing something else. So, I hope you put all those plans in place where it makes sense for us."

Mark Carlisle can be reached at 623-876-2518 or mcarlisle@newszap.com.