MILLIONS IN TAXES, BUT OUR TEETH STILL RATTLE

posted by Michael Chihak

Was your drive home from work today a jolting experience?

Do you wonder why nearly every street in town has speed bumps on it – most of them not on purpose?

Is the ride so rough you think that you’ve become your car’s shock absorbers?

Well, strap in and prepare for more. There’s little relief on the way in this season’s round of government budgeting.

The state is still diverting money from the primary fund set up to pay for highway building and street and road repairs.

The counties and the cities are still complaining that the state is diverting money they need to make fixes.

And we’re still bumping along, putting lots more wear and tear on ourselves and our vehicles than we ought to.

So why is it that we can’t get our streets and roads repaired in a timely manner and properly?

After all, as taxpayers, we put $1.2 billion into the state’s fund for such projects every year, from our gasoline taxes, commercial truck and fuel vendor taxes and what we pay to register and license our vehicles.

A billion two.

Nearly half of it goes to cities and counties – last fiscal year, they got $556 million. Of that, nearly $39 million went to Pima County, another $43 million to the city of Tucson and a little less than $5 million was divided among other metro area municipalities, like Oro Valley and Marana.

Plus, we pay a half-cent transportation sales tax in Pima County that brings in tens of millions a year for road construction and public transit.

And yes, in a growing metro area, the transportation needs are great.

Yet, we’re giving local governments close to $200 million a year from all these and other sources.

And still, the drive home is teeth-jarringly unpleasant.

Makes one wonder what route the politicians and bureaucrats are taking to get to and fro.

It surely can’t be the same rugged byways the rest of us have to travel.

COMING FRIDAY: THE POTHOLE REPORT

posted by Michael Chihak

The gasoline tax in Arizona was begun in 1921, at one-cent a gallon. Now it's 18 cents, a level at which it has stayed for 22 years.

Last fiscal year, 2010-11, the HURF produced $1.2 billion in revenue, with $556.5 million split among Arizona's counties, cities and towns. The rest stayed with the state for the highway fund, Department of Public Safety and Motor Vehicle Division funding.

There was a move afoot in the legislative session this year to reduce the amount the state has been keeping -- an additional $1.5 billion over the last decade -- as its share. It fell short, and the "sweeps," as legislators and others call them, continue in thw 12012-13 bvudget.

Those sweeps came in both good times and bad, when both Republicans and Democrats oversaw the process.

What it boils down to simply put is that local governments have less money with which to fill potholes and repair deteriorating streets and roads.

On Friday's Arizona Week, we will look at the numbers, the political process and the results. On air will be:

-- Ken Strobeck, executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns.

-- State Rep. Vic Williams, R-Tucson, chair of the House Transportation Committee.

-- A representative of county government.

-- AZPM political correspondent Andrea Kelly, to help explain the numbers and the maneuverings.

WHY AZ STREETS, ROADS ARE SO BAD

posted by Michael Chihak

Transportation maintenance operations at all levels of government in Arizona has been severely curtailed in the last decade because the Legislature has used the dedicated transportation fund to plug budget deficits.

The state House Transportation Committee estimated during the recently ended legislative session that money swept from the Highway User Revenue Fund, known as HURF, has added up to $1.5 billion in the last 10 years.

Efforts to protect the funds from being swept again this year fell short, and an estimated $182 million was taken away to help operate the Department of Public Safety and the Motor Vehicle Division.

The fund is made up of revenues from the state's 18-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax, a business-use fuel tax and registration and licensing for vehicles.

When the gasoline tax was originally introduced in Arizona in 1921, it was 1 cent a gallon, and the split was 75 percent for counties and 25 percent for the state.

The latest formula has 50.5 percent going to the state highway fund, 27.5 percent to cities and towns, 3 percent to cities over 300,000 in population and 19 percent to counties.

Friday's Arizona Week will bring the big picture of what the funding shifts have wrought. We will talk with representatives of local governments, the League of Arizona Cities and Towns and lawmakers.

AZ FIRE SEASON COMES IN A RUSH

posted by Michael Chihak

Active wildfires this week in Arizona have consumed more than 22,000 acres of grasslands and forest, and officials across numerous agencies are worried that it will get much worse.

An early prediction that this will be a quieter season than last year -- which included Arizona's biggest ever wildfire, the 540,000-acre Wallow Fire in the White Mountains -- has yet to be proven or disproven.

But of course more than 1,200 firefighters are on the lines, land managers are taking steps to minimize human-caused fires and researchers are quietly wringing their hands over whether we've learned from our past land and forest management policy mistakes and whether it matters at all because of climate change.

We'll give it all an aring on Friday's Arizona Week, with these interviews:

-- Heidi Schewel, information officer for the Coronado National Forest.

-- Don Falk, a professor in the University of Arizona School of Natural Resources and the Environment. His research focuses on fire history and fire ecology.

-- Gene Beaudoin, Tucson District forester with the Arizona Department of Forestry. The department has just imposed fire restrictions on all state lands, including state parks.

-- Shaun McKinnon, environmental reporter for the Arizona Republic. He has covered Arizona wildfires for several years, including the record breaking fires of last year.

Plus an update on the latest wildfires in the state.

COLLEGE GRAD JOB PICTURE: MIXED

posted by Michael Chihak

National Public Radio reported Thursday morning on a new study of college graduates and the job market. It's not a pretty picture.

Arizona Week will explore the topic Friday with a series of interviews with college career placement specialists, an economist and graduating seniors. We'll also speak with a University of Arizona official about the debt students are taking with them when they graduate.

On the program:

-- State economic analyst Aruna Murthy, discussing the employment market for young people.

-- Elaine Stover, career services director at Arizona State University, discussing the opportunities for ASU's Class of 2012.

-- Eileen McGarry, career services director at the University of Arizona, discussing the same for UA's graduates.

-- Melissa Vito, UA vice president for student affairs, discussing student debt carried forth after graduation.

-- UA Class of 2012 graduates Chelsy McHone and Timothy James Venne, discussing their strategies for employment after graduation.

Friday, 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD6, or streamed at azweek.com.

ON FRIDAY: COLLEGE GRAD JOB PROSPECTS

posted by Michael Chihak

The scenario has been the same for college graduates for several years -- get out of school and scramble for employment in the face of the recession and dwindling opportunities.

The unemployment rate nationally among 18 to 25 year olds for April was reported at 16 percent.

Thus, adding thousands of college graduates to that pool has consequences for them, for the economy and, perhaps, for their creditors.

Grads are leaving school with higher debt than ever.

On Friday's Arizona Week, we will explore the job prospects for the Class of 2012, what the hot fields are, how much they pay and what the rest of the new college graduates will do.

We will talk with two University of Arizona seniors who have carved out less-than-traditional paths. We will check in with Eileen McGarry, head of Career Services for the UA. And we will speak with an economist about the big picture in Arizona and nationally.