Maricopa County existing transportation network needs to grow, according to local officials who are advancing a plan to ask Arizona legislators to put the continuation of a half-cent sales tax funding infrastructure on the ballot for voters to approve next fall.
Those funds have built miles of freeways throughout the West Valley and the region during the past 36 years, but often have come up short as projections have left the plans wanting in the face of severe economic recessions.
Officials with the Maricopa Association of Governments — which makes the planning decisions for Maricopa County transportation projects — plans to make its case in 2022 as to why transportation system’s continued growth is important. If approved by voters in the fall, the current tax — itself a 20-year extension of the dedicated half-cent sales tax originally passed in 1985 — could funnel billions of dollars to transportation projects in the Valley starting in 2026.
