Friends,

Over the past couple of years, we have kept you informed about the Auditor General's Audit of the Regional Transportation Plan, as required by Prop 400.

Today, the Auditor General released the final audit report, and we have posted it to our website at www.FriendsOfTransit.org for your review. We will continue to keep you informed of any public meetings or hearings related to the report.

Included below is some brief background information and the key findings from the audit.

Background

The Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) is a comprehensive, performance-based, multi-modal and coordinated regional plan through fiscal year 2028. The RTP covers all major modes of transportation from a regional perspective, including freeways/highways, streets and public transit (including facilities and services such as a regional bus network and light rail). The RTP identifies specific projects and revenue allocations by transportation mode. The RTP is prepared, updated and adopted by the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), which is the regional planning agency for the Maricopa County area.

In 2004, voters passed Proposition 400, a half-cent sales tax for transportation in Maricopa County. The tax continues for 20 years, through calendar year 2025 to implement projects and programs in the RTP. The sales tax is used to construct new freeways; widen existing freeways and highways; and improve the arterial street system, regional bus services, and other special transportation services, and high capacity transit services such as light rail, bus rapid transit, and express buses. All projects funded from the half-cent sales tax are specified in the RTP and provides over half of RTP revenues.

The Audit

A provision included in Proposition 400 requires a performance audit of the RTP and the Plan’s identified multi-modal projects scheduled for funding during the next five years beginning in 2010, and every fifth year thereafter.

The Arizona Auditor General’s Office hired an independent auditor to perform the audit. The purpose of the audit was to assess the efficiency, effectiveness, and performance of the MAG RTP for Maricopa County and to:

• Examine projects previously funded and their impact on relieving congestion and improving mobility (2006-2010)

• Examine projects scheduled for funding during the next five years (2011-2015)

• Review specific areas identified by the Arizona Auditor General through interviews with and input from various interested parties

• Address statutorily mandated questions

• Recommend ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the RTP

The Report

The final report from the auditor was released on December 22, 2011. Also released was the response from the agencies to the recommendations in the audit. Friends of Transit will continue to keep you up-to-date as public meetings and/or presentations on the audit are held.

Key Recommendations

To add further accountability into the development and implementation of the RTP as well as increase efficiencies and effectiveness of the transportation projects, we highlight our key recommendations below:

• Take immediate action to establish baselines or targets for tracking performance of the RTP projects in achieving transportation mobility goals as well as communicate performance of projects completed to date through regular performance reporting;

• Continue to implement the current transportation system and strive to continually reassess system performance to make modifications as necessary;

• Create a “report card” for each project that reconciles Proposition 400 promises through the incremental changes to current RTP project status;

• Memorialize deliberations on project changes including rationale and impacts, and provide this more detailed information to oversight committees to ensure governing bodies have full information for decision-making;

• Strengthen the role of the MAG Transportation Policy Committee to provide greater guidance and establish protocols formalizing how projects and activities within modes will be coordinated, changed, and implemented in the RTP to maximize regional benefits;

• Task the region’s Citizen Transportation Oversight Committee with developing guiding principles for its operations and providing more deliberative actions and recommendations to oversight boards; and

• Continue to investigate cost efficiencies and service effectiveness that could result from combining bus transit and rail operations at a regional level.

Read the full Auditor General report on our website at www.FriendsOfTransit.org.