Giffords rings bell for streetcar funding earmark
More info
For a full listing of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' earmark requests, go to:
www.giffords.house.gov/legislation/appropriations/index.shtml
ADVERTISEMENT
FLOWERS, RIEGER & ASSOCIATES
TAX STAFF Finance and Accounting
Sun Van
Accounting Analyst Health Care
Casa de la Luz Hospice
RN Residential Hospice House Manager General
COMMUNITY PROVIDER OF ENRICHMENT SERVICES
CAREER GROWTH Trades/Construction
Sun Tran
PT Maintenance Supervisor Health Care
CODAC
MULTIPLE HEALTHCARE OPPORTUNITIES Health Care
Fort Bayard Medical Center
Occupational Therapist
- Most Commented Stories Today
- Most E-mailed Stories Today
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., has requested $43 million in federal money to establish streetcar service connecting downtown Tucson to the University of Arizona and the West Side.
The Regional Transportation Authority has budgeted $69.8 million in sales tax dollars to pay for half the project and wants the federal government to kick in $69.7 million to make the streetcar service happen.
The first installment of the streetcar request is the biggest chunk of Giffords' $119 million in "earmark" requests above and beyond what the budget allows. U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., is considering including the same request in his earmark proposals.
Grijalva was to release his earmarks Friday.
Without the money, the street car won't happen, and it is an integral part of the downtown redevelopment efforts, said Tucson City Councilwoman Nina Trasoff. Officials last year said they hoped for a 2010 startup.
"It's a critical economic development feature that will be tying everything together downtown," Trasoff said.
Giffords' other earmarks include: $10 million for the Arroyo Chico flood control project through the midtown area; $7 million for a Tucson-Phoenix commuter rail study; and $2 million for a federal research laboratory to examine how to speed up the federal regulatory process for pharmaceuticals.
Giffords expects less than half her earmark requests to be approved, in part because Congress will cut in half the money it will spend on earmarks for fiscal year 2009, which starts Oct. 1.
Giffords said she was "extremely selective" in deciding which special requests to send to the full House and rejected most that were requested.
"I believe it is part of my job to bring the hard-earned tax dollars of southern Arizonans home to our communities in meaningful ways," Giffords said.
cision for once, and say NO! NO! NO! to
the money? If people won't ride Sun Tran
and we need street repairs and widening,
etc., the money we have needs to be
spent there - not on a box with a wire.