Jeffry Scott / Arizona Daily Star 1999

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PHOENIX — Would you be willing to pay a toll to expedite getting back to Arizona after a trip to Mexico?

The concept was tossed around Friday by officials from the Arizona-Mexico Commission who are looking for ways to involve the private sector and the public in financing improvements to the ports of entry where backlogs are costing the U.S. in lost tourists and trade.

Excessive wait times at ports of entry in Arizona resulted in 2 million fewer visits from the state's southern neighbors between 2002 and 2007, according to a report released at the meeting.

In that five-year period, 1 million fewer cars and 4 million fewer passengers were counted venturing into Arizona from Mexico, Luis Ramirez, adviser to the Nogales Santa Cruz Port Authority and a member of the Border Trade Alliance, told commission members.

Pedestrian traffic increased by 2 million during that time, but the net loss was 2 million visits, he said.

University of Arizona economists estimate Mexican tourists spend $1 billion a year just in Arizona.

Finding ways to expedite the entry of tourists and trade across the U.S. border presents a challenge at a time when security concerns continue to be heightened.

Government officials warned that the business community needs to do something more creative than just lobby for the billions of dollars needed to improve Arizona's ports.

Daniel Voll, a regional administrator with the U.S. General Services Administration, told participants a toll for expedited crossing is a viable alternative to waiting seven to 15 years for the federal government to fund all the necessary upgrades in Arizona.

Once the facilities are paid, the revenue from toll roads could fund long-term projects in the state, Arizona Department of Transportation director Victor Mendez suggested.

"I encourage you all to look at the world a little bit different," he said. "Fifteen years doesn't quite cut it for me."

In the last fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the two ports in Nogales inspected more than 400 trains, 8,000 buses, 233,000 commercial trucks, 2.1 million personal vehicles and 4.9 million pedestrians, said David P. Higgerson, director of Tucson field operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The port, which was built to handle about 400 trucks a day, processes up to 1,500 a day, and that number will grow to about 3,000 a day in the next five years, officials said.

Assuming the federal government approves financing, an upgraded Mariposa Port of Entry wouldn't be completed until 2013, Voll said.

Commission members also discussed the possibility of having the private sector finance the new port and then leasing it back to the federal government.

"If we leave the ports of entry they way they are today, we won't meet the needs of the region," Ramirez said.

"When you hear that 2 million less people visited from Mexico last year, that should concern us all . . . especially hotels and malls."