Is The RTA Discussion Worthy Of Being Addressed On Our Blog?

We have attempted to avoid any partisan political issues on our blog.

It appears that there may be some readers that believe the RTA issue is "old news" and may be considered a "partisan" political issue.

We believe otherwise. We believe the issue of voter transparency is too important to ignore.

As our new blogger, Brad Friedman who writes a nationally renown blog, http://www.bradblog.com/ wrote here in a recent comment---

"Election Integrity is not about "trust" or "credentials", it's about transparency and oversight and your *right*, as a citizen, to *know* that your favorite candidate -- or least favorite -- won or lost in *your* public elections. If you find yourself having to trust in someone -- anyone, whether it be an election officials, a voting machine company, or an EI advocate -- rather than being able to see things for yourself, then something has gone terribly wrong. As it has in Pima (and in much of the nation)."

As for our recent mayoral election, Brad wrote---

"It's quite possible that the mayoral election you all are discussing came out *exactly* as has been reported. It's also quite possible that it didn't. Nobody should have to *guess* which one of those is the case. Citizens should be able to *know*, for themselves -- without needing to "trust" in someone who has a personal stake in the reporting system used for the results, or in a rocket/computer scientist -- that their election has been accurately tabulated."

We are not discussing a "partisan" political issue. We are discussing a political issue that all citizens, and especially Oro Valley voters should be concerned about.

We hope that is the case.

Is Anyone Really Surprised? RTA May Wipe Out 25% Of Its Projects

At this point, we believe most of our readers are aware of the questionable vote in 2006 when the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) was successful in passing a bond issue.

As reported in the July 18 Az Star front page headline, the 2006 ballot underfunded the 35 road projects by a total of $250 million, meaning projects faced a shortfall before they ever got started. A cost estimate done by an RTA consultant before the election showed the projects would actually cost $250 million more than what voters were told in the campaign to get them to approve the plan in May 2006.

Click here to read the full Az Star article here.
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Miller Ranch Reference Map

Here's a reference map of the Miller Ranch area:



The development in question is the land located left of the north-south La Canada roadway. The "neighbors" that have concern live on the other side of La Canada. Their development does not have direct roadway access to La Canada.

There exists, at present, a buffer between them and the proposed development and there is already "noise" from vehicles traveling on La Canada and on Tangerine Road.

The complaining letter that we reference in "It Seems Not All Residents Around Miller Ranch Proposed Development Are Happy" concerns the two story height of the structures and the possible increased congestion and noise.