An election to decide the fate of public transit planning in the city of Phoenix captured national attention as a bellwether for public opinion. Unofficial results have public transit winning with plenty of votes to spare.
"Light rail is likely to continue in Phoenix, according to early election results," reports Jessica Boehm.
"Proposition 105, which would have required the city to halt funding for any new light rail extensions and divert those funds to other transportation projects, was failing 38% to 62% as of 10 p.m. Tuesday," adds Boehm. As of this writing, those results are still showing on the city's election website.
"The 10 p.m. results included mail-in ballots received through Friday and ballots cast in person on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. There were 180,636 ballots cast. The city still needs to count about 15,000 of those," according to Boehm.
Boehm has been following the politics, controversies, and court rulings that preceded the appearance of Proposition 105 on the ballot for months now. While voters have now voted in support of light rail transit planning and spending four times now, Building a Better Phoenix, the organization that built the movement behind the ballot proposition with support from the Koch Brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity, still has friends in positions of political power in the region. Both the Phoenix and the Glendale city councils voted to end funding for the West Phoenix light rail extension early this year.
FULL STORY: Proposition 105: Phoenix voters on track to continue light rail extensions
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Voters in Phoenix are already casting ballots in an election to be decided next week. Proposition 105 would end planned light extensions, and Proposition 106 would cap city spending.
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research