Warning period will be Monday through Sunday

After some false starts, Pima County’s 10 speed limit enforcement camera systems will be activated Monday and used to issue warnings to violators through Sunday.

After that, accused speeders with vehicle license plates caught on camera who can be positively identified will be mailed tickets by American Traffic Solutions Inc. of Scottsdale, the county’s contracted vendor for the program.

Drivers at the camera locations will notice strobe lights flashing starting Friday during a three-day test period of the camera system. No warnings or tickets will be issued during the test phase.

The speed limit enforcement program was approved by the Pima County Board of Supervisors this year as a pilot program that will be reviewed later in the year.

The camera locations were selected by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department based on incidences of speeding and crashes.

The 10 sites accounted for 26 percent of all speeding tickets issued by the Sheriff’s Department in 2008 and more than 4,100 crashes over the past three years.

Activation was delayed for about two months while the vendor fine-tuned the system for accuracy.

The locations are:

• North La Cholla near West Sunset Road

• South Mission Road near West Grubstake Drive

• East Ina Road near North Camino de las Candelas

• North Swan Road near East Calle Barril

• East Valencia Road near South Wilmot Road

• West Ruthrauff Road near West Rillito Street

• West Valencia near South Camino de la Tierra

• South Alvernon Way near South Station Master Drive

• East River Road near North Country Club Road

• South Nogales Highway near East Hermans Road

For D’backs, Rockies, third team

A Marana spring training complex as a February-March site for Major League Baseball is still in the works and could be home to up to three clubs.

“We really think we can populate a three-team facility in Marana,” said Tom Tracy, chairman of the Pima County Sports and Tourism Authority.

And two of those teams could still be the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, he added.

Both MLB teams are exploring options to move from their Tucson spring training homes at Tucson Electric Park and Hi Corbett Field, respectively.

The Diamondbacks’ contract with Pima County to conduct spring training at TEP expires in 2012. The Rockies are obligated to play at Hi Corbett through 2011.

But Tracy maintained the move of either team is far from a done deal, despite a published report out of Phoenix that indicated the Diamondbacks may be close to a decision to relocate spring camp to the Phoenix area.

“I spoke with the Diamondbacks as recently as 24 hours ago,” Tracy said. “They have not made a decision to leave.”

The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday that Diamondbacks Chief Executive Derrick Hall said the team was considering three proposals for new spring training facilities in Maricopa County.

But team officials also have said they are interested in the proposed Marana spring training complex, particularly if the regional sports authority is successful in bringing a third MLB team to share such a facility with Tucson’s existing Cactus League teams, Tracy said.

“We are having active conversations with another major league team to have them come here as early as next spring,” Tracy said.

He declined to name the team.

Talks continue with a Japanese major league team to join the Cactus League and play its games at TEP, Tracy said.

A major component of the Pima County Sports and Tourism Authority’s mission is to establish a nationally known baseball academy in Tucson, in conjunction with Major League Baseball and the Chicago White Sox.

The region could become a national site for youth and amateur baseball tournaments, as well, Tracy said.

The White Sox set off the potential loss of spring training in Tucson when the team moved this year to a new facility in Glendale that it shares with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who moved from their longtime Grapefruit League home in Vero Beach, Fla.

The Diamondbacks’ and Rockies’ contracts allow them to leave early if there are not at least three MLB teams training in Tucson.

Tracy said the sports authority also is considering life after the Diamondbacks and Rockies, if those teams decide to leave.

“There is a lot going on and there is a lot going on outside of the Diamondbacks and Rockies,” he said without elaborating.

The sports authority would need permission from both the Arizona Legislature and Pima County voters to enact a tax to fund a new complex in Marana. The proposed tax would be on hotel rooms, restaurants, and other businesses that benefit from the estimated $30 million that spring training brings to Tucson.

ABOVE: Gabriel Baca (left), his brother Antonio Baca (center) and Jose Rivera enjoy the new sodded athletic field at St. John's Community Park, 3610 S. 12th Ave.

LEFT: Stephanie Prinzing's dogs Hopper (front) and Spike wait to get a drink from the dog water fountain at Jacinto Park, 2600 N. 15th Ave.

BELOW: Sandra Ramirez pushes daughter Natalia Navarro, 3, on a swing at Jacinto Park.

It was a long wait, but residents of the Miracle Manor Neighborhood finally have a park with amenities like other city parks.

“We’ve been asking, ‘Why can’t we have equipment in a park that is 60 years old?’ ” Jim Quinn, vice president of the Miracle Manor Neighborhood Association, said Thursday.

Neighbors will gather at 9 a.m. Saturday at Jacinto Park, 2600 N. 15th Ave., to dedicate improvements that neighborhood residents had sought: a ramada, connecting sidewalks, a swing set with rubberized safety surfacing, a drinking fountain, picnic and game tables and a basketball half court.

Getting them was a chore since funds came from both the city and Pima County, said Marsha Quinn, the neighborhood association’s liaison with Tucson and Pima County.

The project’s $268,331 came from four sources: a $203,331 Pima County Neighborhood Reinvestment grant, $30,000 each from the Mayor’s Office and Ward 3 Back to Basics programs, and a $5,000 grant from PRO (People, Resources, Organizations) Neighborhoods.

St. John’s Community Park, 3610 S. 12th Ave., will be dedicated at 2 p.m. Wednesday and also will have new facilities.

The land is owned by St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, which is leasing it to the city as a park site for 25 years.

Funds for the improvements came from grants from both the city and county, said Leslie Nixon, of the Pima County Neighborhood Reinvestment and Preservation Office.

A $500,000 Pima County grant funded construction of a skateboard facility at the park, Nixon said.

Other improvements include crushed stone paths, athletic field landscaping, a ramada, picnic tables and benches.

19th-century Fort Lowell cavalry men to get military honors

The site of the excavation near Stone and Toole

The remains of 61 U.S. Cavalry soldiers and some of their dependents exhumed from the downtown site of the future County-City Joint Courts Complex will begin their final journey Friday morning.

They will be re-interred at the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Sierra Vista on Saturday.

The remains will be escorted from All Faiths Cemeteries, 2151 S. Avenida Los Reyes, by scores of motorcyclists from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Patriot Riders. They will be reburied with full military honors at the new historical cemetery near Fort Huachuca.

The remains were among more than 1,800 exhumed and stored as part of an archaeological dig at the site of the courts complex, near the southeast corner of Stone and Toole avenues. The site was territorial Tucson’s first cemetery.

The soldiers were stationed at Fort Lowell from the 1860s to 1880s.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of the Catholic Diocese of Tucson will conduct a brief service at 10 a.m.

Before the caskets are loaded into two five-ton military transport vehicles for the trip to Sierra Vista, they will be covered in American flags of their service period.

“We will drape their caskets with 34-star flags from that time period,” Joe Larson of the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services said Wednesday.

“They will be simultaneously covered (with) the flags” by honor guards from all four major branches of the U.S. military, Larson said.

The soldiers’ remains also will receive an air escort from Tucson to Sierra Vista.

Many soldiers of the period sent to the wars against Indians in the Southwest were immigrants to this country and were compelled to enlist for want of other work.

Diseases such as malaria and dysentery claimed many, unaccustomed as they were to the harsh Sonoran Desert climate, Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services records show.

The great majority of the remains exhumed were of civilians in an adjacent burial area, said Roger Anyon, project manager for the Pima County Cultural Resources and Historical Preservation Office, which supervised the archaeological work at the site.

The remains of the deceased civilians, some of whom have descendants living here, will be reburied in local cemeteries over the next several months, he said.

———

More on courthouse, burial

www.geocities.com/savmcf

www.azdvs.gov

www.pima.gov/JointCourts

It has been virtually impossible to stop telecommunications companies from placing cell phone towers in residential areas because of federal law, but Pima County officials will look for ways to reject some towers anyway.

The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed planning staffers to look at code amendments that would require telecommunications companies to prove the necessity of towers in certain locations.

“We can’t just take their word for it,” Supervisor Sharon Bronson said of accepting telecommunications companies’ declarations that new towers must be placed in specific locations to improve cell phone service.

The issue arose from a federal lawsuit against the county by T-Mobile, a subsidiary of the German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, over a conditional use permit for a cell tower the company wants to locate in the Picture Rocks area northwest of Tucson.

The county rejected the tower because of its proximity to existing homes and its probable visual impacts to the scenic area. The company sued.

Supervisors and T-Mobile reached a tentative settlement last week allowing T-Mobile to erect the tower at a different location pending later approval of a conditional use permit.

Still, county officials are grasping for a legal means to gain more control over the placement of cell towers.

The federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibited local jurisdictions from banning cell phone towers outright. It also does not allow communities to ban cell phone towers at specific locations because of public health or safety concerns.

“We can’t consider health effects at all,” Bronson said.

That restriction should be abandoned, Bronson said.

No studies have directly linked long-term exposure to radio frequencies emitted by the towers to negative health effects in humans or animals.

But the National Research Council, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, in 2008 released a report that said not enough study has been done to determine if there are negative health impacts, particularly on children, pregnant women and fetuses.

Supervisor Ann Day said a recent California court ruling “breaks the locks” on the strict interpretation of the telecommunications law and will allow local governments more leeway when considering the pros and cons of where cell towers should be placed.

The westbound on-ramp to I-10 is open at Miracle Mile but the eastbound on-ramp there remains closed.

The great Interstate 10 bottleneck between 29th Street and Prince Road will become less restrictive in the coming weeks as the westbound Grant Road and Speedway access ramps open.

The Arizona Department of Transportation last week opened the Miracle Mile westbound access ramp to freeway-bound vehicles, and officials plan on doing the same at Speedway and Grant in four to five weeks.

Motorists have been prevented by barricades from exiting or entering the interstate between 29th and Prince since ADOT’s $200 million widening of the freeway to eight lanes began in earnest in June 2007.

The project is running slightly ahead of schedule, an on budget, and is expected to be completed in December, Rod Lane, project engineer for ADOT, said Monday.

Lane said only some westbound access ramps will be opened before the project’s completion.

That means that motorists looking to travel downtown and to Tucson’s West Side will continue to exit to frontage roads north of Prince Road and at 29th Street for the duration of work.

The project also includes the construction of new, taller overpasses above cross streets.

———

ADOT I-10 widening pages:

www.i10tucsondistrict.com/29toP.html

www.i10tucsondistrict.com/FactSheets/I10-Closure-Fact%20Sheet-2009.pdf

Pima County would be hit with about $13 million more in contributions to the state long-term care program under a House committee proposal in the still-unapproved Arizona budget.

The proposal by the House Appropriations Committee would hit Pima and Maricopa counties for a combined $55 million more in contributions to the state general fund in the coming fiscal year – with Maricopa contributing the majority.

The proposal drew immediate response from Pima County officials, who this fiscal year had to scramble to replace $3.2 million from case reserves taken by the state to balance this year’s state budget.

“We weren’t pleased with the added $3.2 for ALTCS last year, let alone the $13 million more now,” Martin Willett, deputy county administrator, said Friday.

The long-term care program pays for people in nursing homes and health care for the blind and the disabled.

Willett said the $13 million the county could be paying was not included in the recently-released fiscal 2010 county budget of about $1.37 billion. The budget is scheduled to be tentatively approved May 19. The fiscal year begins July 1.

County officials have worked since late last year to eliminate a projected $38 million budget deficit – mostly through across-the-board department cuts of 7.5 percent to 10 percent, a wage and hiring freeze and layoffs, mostly in the Pima County Development Services Department.

“There was no real explanation from legislative staff on the rationale for this,” Willett said.

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Pleasant Valley, is a proponent of transferring revenue from the counties to the state general fund.

Kavanagh on Friday said that the counties could see the money returned in the form of federal stimulus funding that will come to Arizona.

Kavanagh said the state budget is far from ready for votes by both the House and Senate, and transmittal to Gov. Jan Brewer.

“We still have a lot of talking to do,” he said. “It could be a week; it could be a month,” Kavanagh said.

County governments are experiencing budget crises just like the state, which has a projected $3 billion deficit for next fiscal year, Willett said.

“Are we just supposed to write them a check?” Willett asked.

There is no guarantee that the state would return the money to counties from federal stimulus funds, either, Willett said.

An anticipated crush of new housing on the Southwest Side over the next 25 years has Pima County officials prepping to ensure that development will help pay for the costs of infrastructure improvements.

County engineers have come up with an 83-page Southwest Infrastructure Plan to project transportation capital improvements that will be needed to accommodate an estimated 44,600 new homes in an area bordered by Tucson Mountain Park, Mission and Sandario roads, and the boundary of the Tohono O’odham San Xavier District.

Much of the open space is state trust land, which by law must be sold or leased at auction to the highest bidders – almost always private development interests.

On June 2, the Pima County Board of Supervisors will discuss the establishment of a Southwest Benefit Area, a specific geographical area in which development impact fees collected from builders must be spent on transportation projects made necessary by new growth.

A typical development impact fee for a new single-family home would be about $10,220, according the Southwest Infrastructure Plan.

Creation of a Southwest Benefit Area will involve revising boundaries for the existing San Xavier and Avra Valley benefit areas.

Board members also will direct planning staff to look at existing benefit areas for possible amendments to boundaries, needed projects, project costs and changes to existing fees.

———

On the Web

Pima County Development Impact Fee Benefit Areas

www.dot.pima.gov/transsys/impactfees

Closing community centers also on hold

Neighborhood center coordinator Greg Rivera (left) leads an after-school program at the Joan M. Swetland Community Center at Sahuarita Park last month. The center faces closure to help Pima County deal with a budget deficit.

Families with children in after-school or summer programs won’t have to pay for services at recreation centers run by Pima County – at least for now.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday put imposing such fees on hold after receiving scores of protest letters from worried and angry parents who feared that such fees would put those programs economically out of reach for many.

Supervisors also put off closing some community centers and parks, and reversed actions taken two weeks ago to increase swimming programs and athletic field fees – at least until late June or early July.

“What we are recommending is that you somehow rescind that action and we start over again,” County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry told supervisors.

The county has not raised fees for Pima County Natural Resources, Parks & Recreation programs since 2003, Huckelberry said.

Since then, costs of department programs have significantly increased – from about $10.4 million five years ago to about $15.6 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

On Tuesday, the supervisors directed department staff and Huckelberry to come up with a proposed fee increase ordinance and return in late June or early July with the information.

The county also has added about $2 million in athletic fields lighting and officials anticipate sharply higher electric bills. Some of the proposed fee increases would help offset the cost.

Fee increases that could come at a later date include:

• At the county’s nine public swimming pools: Admission for those younger than 18 from 75 cents to $1.50 cents, and 50 cents per child for low-income households; 18 and older from $1.50 to $3.

• Unlighted athletic fields: Currently no charge. Would go to $5 per hour per field for for-profit leagues; $10 per hour per field for nonprofit organizations; and $15 per hour per field for for-profit teams at Sportspark, a field in Marana.

• Shooting range fees: From $4 per day to $6 per day at Tucson Mountain Park. From $6 per day to $8 a day at Southeast Regional Park Shooting Range.

The real lightning rod issue in the community was the proposal to charge fees for the after-school and youth summer programs.

County officials received more than 250 letters of objection from parents and officials of youth programs that use county community center and parks facilities.

The proposed fees would have been $195 per school semester for the Get Active! Afternoons program and $270 for an eight-week Stay Active! Summers program, with no reductions for families enrolling several children.

“That major issue is off the table,” Huckelberry told the supervisors.

It arose after the Arizona Department of Health Services told county officials that some of the facilities used would need costly physical upgrades because of state licensed day care regulations. To get around that, officials decided to impose fees for the after-school and youth summer programs and to end requirements that parents be either on-site or escort children to and from the centers – creating “at will” programs where children 6 and older could arrive and leave alone.

That would invariably have resulted in more unsupervised children after school and in summer recess getting into trouble, Penelope Jacks of the Childrens’ Action Alliance said after the board decision.

“Allowing children to come and go at will was a very, very bad idea,” Jacks said.

Pima County should join with other jurisdictions in the state in talks with DHS to come up with regulations that would allow after-school programs without meeting the rigid – and prohibitively expensive – licensing requirements for for-profit day care centers, Jacks said.

Supervisors directed Parks & Recreation staff to continue to operate the programs without charge or change and await a response from DHS officials.

Increases in fees for athletic field use also won’t be coming soon. Both for-profit and nonprofit athletic organizations will be hit by increases, but not before February 2010.

It wasn’t the fee increases that were problematic for officials of those organizations. It was the proposed timing of July 1 that they objected to.

“We don’t have a problem with that,” said Earl Causby, director of Little League Baseball’s District 12 in Tucson.

“But we need to have time to budget for it.”

Supervisors did not address the proposed closure of some parks and community centers – including the Joan M. Swetland Community Center in Sahuarita and the Lew Sorenson Community Center on the East Side. The Swetland Center could be taken over by the Sahuarita Unified School District.

Children participate in an after-school program.

Youths play a game called flag tag at Sahuarita Park. Pima County is considering closing the park or transferring it to the Sahuarita School District to deal with increased expenses.

———

POSSIBLE TRANSFERS OR CLOSURES

Pima County Natural Resources, Parks & Recreation Department facilities and programs facing possible transfers or outright closures:

• The Joan M. Swetland Community Center, 15500 S. Sahuarita Road, could be transferred to the Sahuarita Unified School District. Savings: $217,000 a year.

• The Lew Sorenson Community Center, 11100 E. Tanque Verde Road, could be closed, with classes transferred to the Tanque Verde Unified School District.

• The Rillito Vista Community Center, 8820 W. Robinson Road, could be closed, for a savings of about $87,000.

• Catalina Regional Park, 4135 E. Trotter Place, could be closed to save about $76,500.

• Sportspark, 6901 N. Casa Grande Highway, could be leased to a private operator by July 1 to save about $500,000.

• The county’s Leisure Times parks and recreation magazine could be eliminated, saving $50,000.

———

LAST FEES INCREASE

Pima County National Resources, Parks & Recreation Department last raised facilities and program fees in fiscal year 2003-04.

The department budget then was about $10.4 million – almost all from the general fund.

The 2008-09 department general fund budget ending July 1 was about $15.6 million – about a 50 percent increase over five years.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will discuss reductions in Pima County Natural Resources, Parks, and Recreation Department programs, closures of facilities and fee increases for athletic field use.

Supervisors will get an update from department officials on potential cuts in programs and closures of some community centers and parks to avoid a budget shortfall for the current fiscal year.

The board last month approved some fee increases for athletic field use and aquatic programs. Those could be undone Tuesday for additional review.

“We probably will be rescinding those motions,” Board Chairman Richard Elías said Friday.

Supervisors complained at last month’s session that information on the proposed changes was not provided early enough to be adequately studied, and what was provided was confusing and sometimes contradictory.

Speakers from groups and agencies that use parks and recreation facilities and programs agreed.

Supervisors held off deciding on most of the recommended changes pending more information.

The supervisors directed staffers to return Tuesday with a plan to involve the public before initiating fee increases and cuts to programs and facilities.

“We were very frustrated. We had a lot of material in front of us that said different things,” Elías said.

Elías said he had not received the information sought by supervisors late Friday afternoon and could not predict the board’s actions Tuesday.

“My guess is that we’re going to want to hear from more people,” he said.

A proposal to begin charging for after-school and summer child care programs drew the strongest opposition at the board meeting last month.

The Arizona Department of Health Services has told county officials that the free child care programs violate agency rules because staffers are paid. That violates licensing regulations, DHS officials have interpreted, because paying the staffers constitutes provision of services for compensation.

“I understand we have an issue with DHS,” Supervisor Sharon Bronson said Friday.

But department staffers did not adequately justify requiring payment for the programs, Bronson said.

“They didn’t explore any options,” Bronson said.

———

If you go:

What: Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting

When: 9 a.m. Tuesday

Where: First floor, Pima County Administration Building, 130 W. Congress St.

State lawmakers have pulled back on an effort to raid up to $210 million in development impact funds raised by cities and towns, but area officials say they are not convinced the issue has gone away.

The Pima Association of Government’s Regional Council aired the issue at its monthly meeting Thursday, with some members fearing that such an action could shred regional transportation improvement programs.

Impact fees collected by municipalities must be spent to lessen the effects of new development. The funds can be spent on roads, police and fire stations, and parklands.

The Legislature is facing a $3 billion deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Senate leaders have vowed not to act on any bills until a 2009-10 state budget is passed.

That is one factor blocking floor votes on the proposal, which would hold back $210 million from state shared sales tax revenues owed to municipalities.

Municipalities would then have to replace those lost shared revenues with money from impact fees to maintain services funded by the state tax receipts.

“It’s impossible to fathom how they’re going to implement this,” John Liosotos, transportation planning manager for PAG, told Regional Council members.

Support for the proposal among legislators in limited, Liosotos said.

“Everything we hear is there is not a lot of support in either party,” Liosotos said.

But Oro Valley Mayor Paul Loomis voiced concern that the proposal could come back later in the legislative session, after the budget issue is settled.

The measure has the backing of the homebuilding industry in the state, whose members have called for a moratorium on development impact fees during the down market for new homes.

GARRY DUFFY

While I’m uncertain how seriously to take this latest swine flu outbreak, I will follow the advice of health officials about habit changes to lessen the chances of contracting it.

My skepticism stems from the recollection that there was another swine flu “epidemic” in 1976, when the news media whipped up public fear of deadly contagion.

President Ford wanted everyone in the United States to get a swine flu inoculation, until the vaccine proved as dangerous as the disease and was discontinued after several deaths were recorded.

But why take chances now? Sure, I’ll wash my hands a lot, open public restroom doors with a paper towel in my hand and hold my breath around people who are coughing or sneezing.

But if we really want to minimize the opportunity for this to become a pandemic, let’s go all out and abolish one of the most effective transmitters of disease: the handshake.

Who invented shaking hands, anyway? Why don’t we knock knees together or bump butts instead?

Some trace the handshake to ancient times when rulers symbolically took power from the gods by gripping the hands of idols.

Others believe it comes from medieval Europe, where the right hand was extended openly to show that you weren’t about to bludgeon the other guy. The grasping of hands sealed the deal that there was no malevolence intended by either party.

Whatever. Few people carry a mace around anymore, and almost never to business or social functions.

But the handshake persists in various forms. There is the crush-the-other-guy’s-hand grip. The just-firm-enough-with-eye-contact handshake. The grasp-with-two-hands grip. The creepy limp-fish handshake. And the endless hip variations of combination grasp, spin and bump handshakes – almost a Ministry of Silly Handshakes.

No one should be offended at the decline of a handshake. Years ago, Sen. John McCain visited a newsroom where I worked as assistant managing editor. He looked quite under the weather. I politely explained that I was leaving the next day to visit family over Christmas and did not want to chance carrying an illness with me.

The senator did not appear insulted or distraught at the missed opportunity to press the flesh with me.

Let’s just do away with this archaic and potentially contagion-spreading custom.

I am officially declaring a personal moratorium on handshaking. Don’t be upset when I don’t extend my open right hand to grasp yours. I probably won’t be armed.

Next target: neckties, the medieval bib.

Garry Duffy is a Tucson Citizen reporter. Contact him at 807-8421 or gduffy@tucsoncitizen.com.

A proposal in the Legislature to tap into cities’ and towns’ development impact fee programs for up to $210 million to help cut into the state budget deficit has area officials challenging the legality of such a move.

Enough so that it will be discussed at Thursday’s Pima Association of Governments Regional Council meeting.

Impact fees are used by local governments to make transportation improvements to meet growth.

“An action that will undermine basic infrastructure is not a good idea,” Gary L. Hayes, executive director of PAG and the Regional Transportation Authority, said this week.

PAG is the regional umbrella agency for transportation, air quality and population issues. Members include Tucson, Pima County, Marana, Oro Valley, South Tucson and Sahuarita.

The RTA’s 20-year regional transportation plan is largely funded with a half-cent sales tax that would not be impacted by the state taking the impact fees.

But impact fees collected by member jurisdictions also go to fund RTA projects, and that money would be sorely missed if appropriated for state budgetary relief, Hayes said.

“I looked at it and it struck me as an impossibility,” lawyer Martin Willett, Pima County deputy administrator, said Tuesday.

Willett is the county’s point man on legislative issues. He has heard and seen few details about the proposal, which would allow the state to dun cities and towns for $210 million in state-shared revenues that would have to be made up through their development impact fee programs.

“I would say they have no legal authority to take impact fees already collected by cities and towns,” said Mike Rankin, Tucson city attorney.

The city and most local jurisdictions have development impact fee programs where money collected from developers is used for road, park and sewer facilities improvements.

The enabling statutes approved by the Legislature in the past stipulate that fees collected for improvements made necessary by growth be used in the specific geographic areas of the new development.

“The only legal option for us is to use those fees for improvements needed because of the developments,” said Jason Baran, state and federal relations coordinator for the Tucson Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Details of how supporters of the action would justify taking the impact fees were unclear, enough so that a planned state hearing on the proposal Tuesday was canceled pending more study.

Backers of the proposal have said it would involve the state holding back $210 million in state-shared revenues from cities and towns this coming fiscal year. The affected communities would have to replace those detoured funds from their impact fee coffers.

———

Impact fee links:

Tucson impact fee pages: http://www.tucsonaz.gov/planning/prog_proj/projects/cost/index.html#TopOfPage

Pima County: www.dot.pima.gov/transsys/impactfees/

Oro Valley: www.ci.oro-valley.az.us/BLDSFTY/PDF/Oro%20Valley%20Fee%20Schedule.pdf

Marana: www.marana.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=312&DL=1

South Tucson and Sahuarita do not impose impact fees.

Pima County supervisors will soon see a $1.37 billion recommended 2009-10 budget that includes a reduction in the proposed combined property tax rate of about 7.8 cents per $100 valuation.

The recommended budget is about $6.2 million less than the one for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The budget recommended by County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry will go to supervisors May 19 for tentative adoption.

The fiscal plan includes a decrease in the primary property tax rate from the current $3.39 per $100 valuation to $3.31 – the lowest in 35 years, Huckelberry told supervisors Monday in a budget memorandum.

Overall, it calls for a reduction in the combined property tax rate from the current $4.63 cents per $100 valuation to about $4.55 per $100 valuation.

The financial plan also notes the county will finish the current fiscal year with a balance of about $24.5 million, instead of a projected shortfall of almost $40 million.

About $6.7 million of the fund balance would go to property tax relief.

The county enacted across-the-board departmental budget cuts of 7 percent to 10 percent – except for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department – to avert the projected deficit.

“It went away because we managed it away,” Huckelberry said.

The proposed budget identifies about $493.9 million for the general fund, a decrease from the 2008-09 general fund of about $501.4 million.

The projected lowered property tax rates in the coming fiscal year budget would apply only to Pima County levies.

Property tax bills to be mailed in September contain numerous taxing jurisdictions, such as the city of Tucson, school districts, Pima Community College, and special entities like fire and improvement districts.

Much of the projected budget shortfall for the current fiscal year stemmed from cuts in state revenues, as legislators at the statehouse have battled their own deficit demons.

County budget officials planned for state cuts in health, public safety and transportation revenues, but did not estimate them as high as they turned out to be: about $14.3 million, Huckelberry said.

The Legislature has not approved a state budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, leaving officials of counties and cities to guess what revenue cuts may come their way.

Huckelberry said he expects the Legislature to again cut revenues to jurisdictions and that the recommended budget may have to be significantly changed before its adoption to reflect coming state cuts.

Much of the projected $24.5 million end fund balance on June 30 could be used to provide additional financial support to University Physicians Hospital at Kino. UPH officials have asked for $30 million on top of $10 million the county is scheduled to fund the hospital. Huckelberry has recommended that $15 million of the fund balance be set aside for that purpose .

Where much of the money would go in the budget plan:

• Justice and law enforcement would continue to take the biggest share of the general fund budget with a combined recommended allocation of $237.2 million – about 48 percent of the total.

• Another $72.8 million would go to mandated payments to state programs for indigent, acute, long term, and mental health programs.

• Almost $14 million would be earmarked for adult and juvenile detention health care.

• About $64.6 million would go for employee benefits, including $24.5 million in county contributions to various state retirement systems, and another $16.5 million for employee medical, dental, and life insurance premiums.

The budget would set aside about $110.1 million for county debt service – about $9.6 million more than the current fiscal year. That money goes to the county’s general obligation bond debt, transportation bond debt, and repayment on certificates of participation issued in lieu of bonds, Huckelberry said.

• Regional Flood Control: About $12.2 million. Tax rate: About 26.3 cents, or about 3 percent lower than the current fiscal year.

• Pima County Library District: $37.4 million: Secondary tax rate: about 26.4 cents per $100 valuation – about 7.5 percent less than the current fiscal year

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Important budget dates

• May 19: Public hearing

• May 19: Tentative adoption

• June 16: Final budget adoption

• Aug. 17: Tax levy adoption

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The proposed Pima County budget for 2009-10:

www.pima.gov/finance/PDFs/Budget/BdgtMemo/0910/CA042709RecommendedTransmittal.pdf

There are major Interstate 10 lane restrictions planned for next week:

• The eastbound frontage road at Interstate 10 from Speedway to 29th Street is to be closed Saturday from 8 p.m. until about 6 a.m Sunday.

• The eastbound frontage road from Miracle Mile to 29th Street is to be closed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

• The westbound frontage road from 29th Street to Speedway is to be restricted to a single lane Saturday from 8 p.m. until about midnight and again from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m.

• The westbound frontage road from 29th Street to Speedway is to be closed Saturday from midnight until 2 a.m.

• The westbound frontage road from 29th Street to Miracle Mile is to have intermittent closures Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m.

• Grant Road at I-10 is to be closed Monday through Friday from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m.

• Speedway Boulevard at I-10 is to be closed Thursday from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m.

• St. Mary’s Road at I-10 is to be closed Saturday through Monday from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m.

• Congress Street is to be closed at the freeway Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. until 6 a.m.

• 22nd Street at I-10 is to be closed until 6 a.m. Monday.