TUCSON, Ariz (KGUN) — Mail-in ballots are going out for the Tucson City election. The November vote is about more than candidates. It includes a vote on planning for Tucson’s future.
The old saying goes, “If you fail to plan, plan to fail” The City of Tucson has developed a very elaborate plan for 2025 onward that covers almost all aspects of city life. Now city government needs voters to approve it in November.
“It's an action plan, a master plan of all of your priorities.”
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero says the priorities built into the plan came from listening to thousands of Tucsonans.
“We spent three years and 1000s of hours investing in going out to community meetings and neighborhood meetings and community events.”
She says the plan does not add any cost to taxpayers as it sets Tucson’s priorities for Housing, transportation, environmental resources, public safety and economic growth.
The plan is up for voter approval as Proposition 417. State law says cities have to ask voters to approve a new plan every ten years. If voters say “no” Tucson would officially revert to its old plan from 2013, while it sets a new election to ask voters again to approve Plan 2025.
Mayor Romero says a new election would cost the city about a million dollars. In the meantime the city could still move forward and invest in its priorities, but it helps to point to a coordinated master plan when the city asks for funding from the State or Federal government.
Those governments have their own priorities but the Mayor says their priorities can align with parts of Plan Tucson in Prop 417.
“And so let's say this particular administration, the Trump administration, is much more interested in roads and infrastructure investment; then we have a section in our plan Tucson, where we do talk about our roads and infrastructure investment.”
And Mayor Romero says Prop 417 and Plan Tucson really are all about hope—a plan to turn hopes for a better Tucson into reality.
