Issue Position: Transportation

Issue Position

A healthy transportation infrastructure is essential to state growth… which is essential to getting us out of the budget mess. The obvious problem is that such infrastructure costs money we don't have. While advancement in fuel efficiency has been environmentally beneficial, it also means less revenue from gas taxes. In addition, regional sales taxes (i.e. Prop 400 for Maricopa County) have significantly declined during this recession. That leaves only one viable solution for transportation projects: the private sector. I am a huge supporter of public-private partnerships (also known as "P3"). Why not allow entrepreneurs to help solve the problem? They can foot the bill for the upfront cost of new roads, and those who wish to use them can pay for them. As long as there are adequate alternative "free" transportation routes, and existing lanes are not converted to toll roads to the detriment of neighboring lanes, the toll-payers can benefit directly from their use, and the non-payers can benefit indirectly from reduced traffic on the current lanes. Furthermore, private investment would pump hundreds of millions of dollars into our state economy and create jobs in construction and other industries!

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