RTA Next Plan closer to going in front of voters | News

TUCSON, Ariz. – (KVOA) The Regional Transportation Authority Board is one step closer tonight to getting its plan for the future in front of Pima County voters.

Voters first approved RTA funding back in 2006. That 20-year plan will end next year. The nine-member RTA Board is putting a plan together it hopes voters will pass next March The proposal looks 20 years into the future and will be funded for two decades through a continuation of a half-cent sales tax.

Former Tucson City Manager Michael Ortega is the RTA Executive Director.

“When you have a plan that’s 20 years and you only ask for a portion of the funding, there’s the question of well, where’s the rest of it,” Ortega said. “And, it’s better to have a conversation around how the entirety of the plan is funded. It gives clarity. It gives more surety to the voters, more surety to the jurisdictional partners.”

The RTA Next Plan goes through 2046 and totals $2.67 billion.

$262 million will go towards road and transportation projects that did not get completed in the original 20-year RTA plan approved in 2006.

Those projects include the Grant Rd. widening project.

RTA board member, Ted Maxwell who is also the President and CEO of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, tells News 4 Tucson the plan needs to go before voters next March so this vote doesn’t compete alongside the midterm elections next November. But, most of all Maxwell said if the RTA measure is not on the ballot in March, the RTA will lose critical dollars.

“March of 2026 is the last opportunity we have to ask voters to approve the RTA Next Plan,” Maxwell said. “If it’s not approved by March, come July 1st we start losing all the funding we currently collect, $125 million a year. If we delay it to November, we guarantee that will lose at least 9 months or $100 million worth of revenue for our roads. More importantly, when we do go back to voters in November, we have to tell them it’s a new tax because for the previous seven, eight months you will have lived with a half-cent lower sales tax.”

“One of the biggest issues we have is not only the state of our roads, but also our transit system,” Ortega said. “Our transit system relies upon RTA funding for the long term and I think that’s an important component that people need to understand and then get in the detail of it, so they can vote whatever their conscience is in March.”

The RTA Board is expected to vote to finalize the plan and vote on the ballot language Aug. 25.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors would have to call for a Mar. 10, 2026 election no later than Sept. 10. County supervisors are expected to call for the election at their next scheduled meeting on Sept. 2.