By Howard Fischer
Mail | Twitter: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX – Rep. Alexander Kolodin voted against legislation signed this week by Gov. Katie Hobbs that will allow Maricopa County voters to decide on extending a half-cent sales tax for transportation projects.

And the Scottsdale Republican isn’t buying the results of a poll done by OH Predictive Insights that said 56% of those questioned support a renewed half-cent tax, with 17% opposed and 26% undecided. Pollster Mike Noble said even among Republicans there was a plurality, with 47% in favor and 30% against.

And in a separate question, Noble said he found that 54% believe the current light rail system should be expanded, with only 6% saying there should be no light rail.

"And the reason I doubt the accuracy of the polling is, if it were true that spending (nearly) 40% of this new tax on public transportation funding was something the voters wanted, nobody would ever have fought bifurcation,'' he said. That refers to the desire by conservatives - and what was in the original bill vetoed by Hobbs - to have two votes, one for roads and one for mass transit.

In vetoing that plan, the governor accused backers of "playing politics'' and "holding Arizona's economy hostage.''

Kolodin, however, said he believes voters are willing to listen to arguments about why this new plan is unacceptable.

"The messaging has to be we're growing at a rapid pace, we've got to have our transportation funding dedicated to the roads that will allow us not to turn into L.A.,'' he said. "We can't have 40% of it siphoned off for public transit that services less than a percent of the population.''

And Kolodin said if voters reject this plan, it will send a message to lawmakers to approve a different formula.

But not all Republicans agree.

Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, issued a press release calling what lawmakers approved the "most conservative Prop 400 plan in Arizona history.''

He cited the elimination of funding from the levy for light rail expansion and the 63% earmarked for roads and freeways. And Petersen said it also ties the hands of the Maricopa Association of Governments, the agency made up of local community leaders that decides and funds the projects.

"No longer can dollars be shifted unilaterally after taxpayers have approved the measure,'' he said.

Kolodin rejected the idea that Los Angeles is not an example he wants to cite.

For decades the city and surrounding communities poured billions into building more and more freeways based on the belief that would ease congestion.

That didn't happen. And it is only more recently that the area has invested in rail and other mass transit.

But Kolodin said that funding hasn't helped.

"I don't know if you've driven in L.A. recently, but they're congested to the gills,'' he said. "It's clear that it doesn't solve the problem.''

The lone Democrat to oppose the plan was Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales of Tucson. But unlike the Republicans who voted "no,'' her objection was the fact that the measure bans funding for new light rail and includes a provision barring the state from imposing limits like California on what percentage of vehicles sold could be powered with fossil fuels.

The key provision of the legislation signed by Hobbs authorizes the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to call a special election, presumably in 2024, to give voters the last word on extending the tax to 2045.