DALLAS — Phoenix has formed a citizens committee to plan for expansion of the city's light rail line after Mayor Greg Stanton said he wanted to triple the size of the existing system over three decades.
"Our investment in light rail is paying off, but it's time to have a conversation about what we want our transportation system to look like 30 years from now," Stanton said in a prepared statement announcing the committee.
Former U.S. secretary of transportation Mary Peters will chair the panel that will include former city council members, business leaders and city residents.
Unlike some metro areas, Phoenix and its suburbs operate independently in raising revenue for Valley Metro Rail projects that pass through their boundaries. The current 20-mile line serves Phoenix, Mesa and Tempe.
Phoenix's voter-approved transportation sales tax, Transit 2000, expires in 2020, with revenue falling $1 billion short of projections due to the economic downturn of 2008.
A county transportation sales tax, Proposition 400, also provides funding for transit improvements.
Phoenix wants to extend a 0.4-cent sales tax provided by Transit 2020 because the city would otherwise have only enough funding to add about 5 miles over six years.
Phoenix expects to spend about $21.9 million to operate the light rail in the current fiscal year. In 2013, fare revenue covered about $8.1 million of the city's operation and maintenance costs, officials said.
In its fifth year, light rail has already achieved its 2020 ridership goal of 48,000 people a day, almost 22,000 more than expected. Advocates tout rail's economic impact at $7 billion.
Phoenix carries general obligation bond ratings of Aa1 from Moody's Investors Service and AA-plus from Standard & Poor's. Outlooks are stable. The city has about $1.5 billion of GO debt outstanding.
From a ratings perspective, real estate values in Phoenix remain well below peak levels and taxable values continued to decline through 2014, according to a May 20 report from Moody's Investors Service. After peaking in 2010, the full cash value of property declined 42% to 2014.
