Major cuts for planned freeway expansion

The local association of governments is looking to make major cuts to the freeway plan that is supposed to guide this valley for the next 20 years. The cuts will be about $4.5 billion and a lot of freeway projects on the chopping block. Look for big ticket items like the South Mountain Freeway to probably fall off the map.

Needless to say, this is fairly disappointing since the plan is only a couple years old, but the economy has certainly taken a turn for the worse. However, I do have to say that the timing is bad to be talking about cuts to freeways and watching the different parts of the fighting to keep projects just as the light rail is starting to go up and running.

I understand that they are two different items and the money comes from different places, but people are going to naturally connect the two and be under the impression that we are sacrificing freeways for light rail. While not necessarily the case, that is the perception out there.