Tucson Opinion: Why we support Prop 412

Proposition 412, calling for renewal of the City’s contract with TEP, will be decided by voters in the upcoming special election on May 16. The proposed contract will retain both the current 2.25% franchise fee and create an additional 0.75% Community Resilience Fee as part of the franchise fee going before voters. This new fee will cost the average TEP customer a little less than $1 per month.

One of the chief issues regarding Proposition 412 has to do with whether the proposed contract does enough to address climate action initiatives. We believe that the contract would make considerable headway. It sets the stage for significantly greater collaboration between TEP and the City on climate action initiatives both now and in the future, plus the agreement opens up the potential for millions of dollars to become available to help finance and carry out climate action initiatives.

Also important, with the approval of Proposition 412, a percentage of the new Community Resilience Fee will provide the means to fund undergrounding power lines along the Campbell/Kino Gateway corridor and can be used for similar purposes, undergrounding power lines, in the future.

If Proposition 412 does not pass, leaving TEP with no other sure way to finance the undergrounding of lines acceptable to the Arizona Corporation Commission, it will make constructing a long series of 85-to-110-foot industrial-sized pylons carrying overhead transmission lines, stretching for miles straight through the heart of town, far more likely to happen. The project would constitute an exceptionally unsightly blemish on our community. In addition, it would inflict considerable damage upon Tucsonans living nearby the project. By our estimate, construction of the Kino to Demoss-Petrie project above ground would reduce values of property nearby the route by $40-to-$60 million in total. A good part of that serious financial injury would be borne by Tucsonans with homes of median value or below, relative to all homes in Tucson.

If Proposition 412 is not passed, there are other concerns as well.

First, TEP will have to spend $12 million to upgrade old and outdated facilities they would otherwise not have to upgrade. The Arizona Corporation Commission would then undoubtedly allow TEP to pass on this added $12 million expense to TEP’s customers through an increase in customers’ rates (costing customers a good bit of what the raised franchise fee would have cost), all with no undergrounding, no modernization or additional protection of the grid, and no funding for climate action.

Second, if Proposition 412 does not pass, TEP could decide to look at routes other than the Kino/Campbell gateway route, routes either further east of Kino/Campbell (such as Country Club) or to the west of the university, thereby opening up the whole issue again.

Or, TEP could go to the Arizona Corporation Commission to ask them to override the City’s ordinance now requiring all new facilities be undergrounded along the Kino/Campbell corridor, thereby allowing the project’s overhead construction on this route with all the harm that that will bring.

In our view, any of these outcomes would be extremely unfortunate. They would all be avoided if Proposition 412 is approved by voters.

Voting “yes” on Proposition 412 provides residents of the City of Tucson with a unique opportunity to approve undergrounding of power lines (a first in our city), beginning with the Kino to DeMoss-Petrie 138kV Project, thereby preserving Tucson’s character, history, scenery, and economic future as well as protecting its citizens.

At the same time, Proposition 412 provides a foundation for greater collaboration between TEP and the City and a new funding source to address the very real problems of climate change.