Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego holds State of the City Address

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Mayor Kate Gallego stressed the importance of addressing homelessness, climate change and infrastructure in her annual State of the City address April 12, 2023. She outlined the tactics Phoenix is using to combat the homelessness crisis, including working with nonprofit partners to manage more than 5,000 affordable housing units.

Mayor Gallego joined Arizona Horizon to speak more on upcoming plans for the city.

What is the state of the city of Phoenix?

“The state of the city is strong. We talked about a variety of different themes, including the high wage economy, what we’re doing on water and sustainability,” said Gallego.

Where is the city going with infrastructure and transportation?

“One of the things that was a top priority for me in my State of the City, and just generally, is we need to extend Proposition 400, which is our regional sales tax that supports our freeway system, some arterial roads and part of our transit system. If we are going to have a bus system in Maricopa County outside of Phoenix, we need this to be on the ballot and be available for approval from the voters,” said Gallego.

What did you mean by the legislature could carve a path in order to pass this?

“There’s two ways this could move forward. Right now Maricopa County is the only county in Arizona that does not have approval to go to our own voters and ask them to approve a transportation plan, so the legislature could just authorize the voters and the county to put on our own initiative,” said Gallego.

Another way this could move forward is if “they could authorize the plan that was unanimously approved by mayors, tribal leaders and business community representatives appointed by the legislature. How often do we get anything unanimous in politics anymore? Conservative mayors, progressive mayors all came together to come up with a plan for the region, and we think the voters should get a chance to give it a vote up or down,” said Gallego.

Phoneix Mayor Kate Gallego

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