Local opinion: RTA Next plan invests in our urban core

Life without a car is difficult. In the City of South Tucson — our one-square-mile barrio, where the average household earns $30,000 less than the typical Tucsonan — life without a car is typical. In our small city, public transit is as essential as the roads themselves. This is why I am proud to have voted on August 15th to advance a 20-year regional transportation plan that balances suburban development with genuine investments in transit.

In 2006, voters approved a half-penny sales tax to fund a Regional Transportation Authority to advance road improvements and other transportation initiatives. The original 20-year sales tax is now set to expire, and the RTA board on which I serve has been diligently working to develop a plan for the next twenty years that will meet the needs of the region.

When I joined the RTA board, I embarked on this process with skepticism, and a deep obligation to fight for our people. Our small barrio has a long history of being overlooked in big, regional decisions. I had just learned that $23 million in proposed transportation funding for South Tucson had been cut. That wasn’t just a number to me; it was dreams deferred. It was the pothole that damages a working mother’s car, the cut bus route that leaves an abuelita waiting in the sun. I fought for our community, and I’m proud to say that we restored the $23 million and then some. Under the RTA Next plan, South Tucson is now set to receive nearly $50 million over the next 20 years. This amount includes over $31 million for transit, including $8 million to improve safety for bus riders.

For all those reasons, I am happy to report that the proposal approved last week (and which will go to voters in March 2026) helps to correct these historical inequities and promises to invest in the transportation needs of our region’s most vulnerable. It’s an affirmation that a growing region must include the working families of South Tucson, the seniors who rely on the bus to get to the clinic each morning, and the children walking down Sixth Avenue to school. While the proposal will invest heavily in suburban road expansions, it will also invest more heavily in our urban core.

Twenty years ago, RTA was founded on the notion that more can be achieved when municipal leaders work collectively rather than competitively. The proposal advanced last week is the product of that collaborative spirit. It’s about more than just what we need today; it’s about the legacy we leave for the generations that will come after us.