Pinal Regional Transportation Authority’s board of directors today suspended operations of the 9-year-old agency with one director saying “there is no viable path forward for construction of highway projects.”
Board members represented by mayors and city council members from around Pinal County took the action during a special meeting this afternoon.
“After considering all options, I concluded that using the PRTA framework to improve State Route 347 or to develop a broader transportation plan is no longer feasible,” said Maricopa City Councilman Vincent Manfredi, who has been a PRTA board member or alternate since 2016. “Still, I am fully committed to finding solutions for the much-needed improvements on SR 347.”
Between 2017 and 2021, funds were collected under the PRTA 416/417 plan. However, after an Arizona Supreme Court ruling overturned voter approval of the plan, those funds are now being refunded.
Maricopa County also recognized this need, and its transportation initiative, Prop 479, easily passed Nov. 5, allocating some funds for SR 347 improvements in that county.
“Funding for the Riggs Road project remains, but we still need to find the financing for the Pinal County section of SR 347,” Manfredi said in a statement after PRTA board met. “I believe a half-cent local sales tax on purchases within city limits may be the answer. This option will need to be discussed at the council level.”
The PRTA board is comprised of 11 mayors and city council members with Casa Grande and Maricopa as the lead municipalities. It was meeting on a bi-monthly basis but that is likely to be pared back to once a year.
No staff were laid off in the move. Pinal County provided management and staff assistance for PRTA.
This organization developed a Regional Transportation Plan that was taken to the voters in a November 2017 special election.
Pinal County voters approved both the transportation plan and a 20-year half-cent sales tax to fund the transportation improvements contained in the plan. The sales tax was expected to bring $640 million in revenues to implement the plan over a 20-year period.
At its Nov. 1 meeting, the PRTA board approved a plan to work with Pinal County businesses and entities and the Arizona Department of Revenue to help recover transportation excise taxes. Those taxes were collected between 2018 and 2022 to ensure they are made available for transportation purposes in Pinal County.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the structure of the transportation excise tax approved by Pinal County voters in 2017 was not valid. That resulted in about $90 million of tax receipts that must be refunded.
Businesses and other entities in Pinal County paid transaction privilege taxes to the Department of Revenue for four years, but no funds were ever made available to the PRTA during more than three years of litigation.
Under the plan, businesses and entities that paid the transaction privilege taxes would have the option of requesting refunds from the Department of Revenue and donating that money to a Central Arizona Governments fund. The fund was earmarked for Pinal County capital improvement transportation projects and programs.
Taxpayers would avoid tax consequences by donating the funds to CAG, a nonprofit organization. The plan will allow tax refunds to best satisfy the original purpose for the transportation projects and programs tax, keep the monies in Pinal County and may also allow the PRTA to assist the state in its efforts to refund the TPT receipts.
Businesses who collected this tax may be entitled to a refund. For more information about this process, click here.
Vincent Manfredi is an owner of InMaricopa.
This post Pinal highway authority suspends operations, says SR 347 improvements ‘not feasible’ appeared first on InMaricopa.