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 Norman Mineta
Sierra Tucson Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Health Care CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Trades/Construction RANCHO RESORT MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional Tucson Urban League CEO/President Sales and Marketing Everready Glass Sales Reps Mechanical Komatsu Equipment Co Resident Field Mechanic Administrative & Professional Jorgensen Brooks Group Counselor OpinionState infrastructure at riskArizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.16.2008
You and the other 6 million or so Arizona residents use the state's infrastructure — tangible, basic facilities, services and systems — every day. You flip on your lights, drive your child to school, search the Internet, wash your hands and flush your toilet.
Arizona's public-sector infrastructure on which you depend is at risk. It significantly lags behind our state's population growth and its aging systems need renovation.
These are among the conclusions of a two-year study of the state's infrastructure needs over the next 25 years conducted by researchers at Arizona State University. The report will be presented Monday in Tempe.
The study, "Preparing for an Arizona of 10 Million People: Meeting the Infrastructure Challenges of Growth," dove into background data, business plans and census records. Cost estimates were built from information provided by businesses and utilities.
Because it is relatively new, Arizona's infrastructure is in better shape than other parts of our nation.
Fortunately, our state has not experienced the devastation of neglected infrastructure.
Our region, however, has seen the results of inadequate prediction of and planning for meteoric growth. Sahuarita, a bedroom community south of Tucson, in 2007 asked Pima County for permission to ship its raw sewage to the county's Green Valley wastewater treatment plant because Sahuarita's plant was about to reach its limit and a planned expansion would not be completed in time to meet the community's needs.
Gary Yaquinto, president of the Arizona Investment Council, a group that encourages investment in utilities and infrastructure, warns in the report: "If we don't start moving now, we're going to end up in a situation where growth in our economy will stagnate and our quality of life will deteriorate."
Growing population, growing needs
Arizona's population is projected to reach 10 million before 2030. Most of these Arizonans are expected to live in the Sun Corridor — contiguous, multiple jurisdictions that will stretch from Prescott to the Mexican border.
This projected growth pattern, which pushes outward from the metropolitan areas, requires new infrastructure.
During the last 25 years or so, growth has been relatively close to the metro areas; thus, only expansion of infrastructure started decades ago was necessary. However, the next 25 years of growth is expected in traditionally rural areas with limited infrastructure, such as Pinal County. That means physical facilities and services will be needed.
In addition, as our nation moves from an industry-based economy to those dependent on science and technology, infrastructure needs, especially telecommunications and educational facilities, are more important.
Expanding population, contracting expenditures
As our state's population increases and infrastructure needs change, money spent for improving infrastructure is decreasing proportionately.
Capital outlays — the money spent on physical infrastructure costs and usually financed by long-term debt — by state and local governments in Arizona have dropped over the last 15 years in comparison with other fast-growing states, according to the study. While the total dollars may be higher, the percentage of the state's revenue is lower.
Arizona ranked sixth among the 10 fastest-growing states; yet our state's capital outlays were 4 percent below the average of the nine other fastest-growing states.
Dennis Hoffman, an economist, one of the study's authors and director of ASU's L. William Seidman Research Institute at the W. P. Carey School of Business, said the biggest initial surprise in the report was the magnitude of this public-sector funding gap.
"Arizona just needs to raise its revenue collections and spending to around the national average," he said.
Needs aren't going away
Even though we're in an economic downturn, our state's population is expected to grow. In addition, Arizona can't sit by and watch the infrastructure deteriorate in hopes that new technologies will eliminate or reduce the needs.
Hoffman predicts little impact of new technologies, such as solar energy.
"Even if solar energy became cost-effective, it would only substitute for the existing energy sources," Hoffman said. "In the longer term, the worldwide supply of some of the existing energy sources will shrink, driving prices way up.
"Citizens appear ready to embrace a renewables agenda characterized by higher renewable standards," he said. "What is far less clear is whether they are willing to pay the costs of attaining these standards."
Likewise, the impact of alternative modes of transportation, such as commuter and light rail, on our state's infrastructure needs is questionable.
"This depends on the cost comparison between these alternatives, and building roads (and) driving your own car, and the willingness of the public to use these alternatives," Hoffman said.
The essence of the report is that infrastructure needs are great and that the quality of the infrastructure directly impacts economic development and quality of life, he said.
"Just to maintain the existing infrastructure quality will require investments, and attaining a level of infrastructure needed to serve an Arizona of 10 million will require even more. It's time to plan and prioritize," Hoffman said.
"Planners in the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s made decisions that had a profound positive influence on economic growth and quality of life that we have all enjoyed in Arizona," Hoffman said. "It's time to follow their lead. Our children's prosperity is at stake."
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