Is Matt turning libertarian? Perhaps it's TIME.

To take the partisanship out of this, I made sure I wrote libertarian with a small "l", in part because I am at work right now (although it is lunch time), and, well, even if I weren't at work I would not confess to joining the Libertarian Party. My thoughts on that political party can be saved for another time. I am a strong believer in funding necessary government services, but I am also a believer in well-run government. I worked on an efficiency review of state government under Governor Napolitano, and I very much agree with her and the business community on the need for more money to pay for infrastructure as Arizona grows, because growth does not pay for itself. But I have increasing concerns about the TIME Coalition, which is seeking to raise Arizona's sales tax by 18% (an additional percentage point) to pay for transportation projects over the next 30 years. After a deal the Governor made with homebuilders to support the transportation initiative in exchange for not funding the initiative through a tax on homebuilders, now non-profit groups of gamers (not the video kind, but the kind with real guns) and environmentalists will have tax money funneled into their organizations to protect some of the wildlife and game that is killed off by motorists when we put new highways through their habitat. I am not opposed to using some tax money to help protect wildlife, but when the Arizona Department of Game and Fish is not consulted on how the initiative would impact wildlife, some out there are going to wonder if the TIME folks are just using public money to buy support from various groups for their initiative. Of course, without that kind of buy off (or buy in, depending on your point of view), initiatives don't usually pass. But again, the average consumer is going to be stuck with the bill for sprawl and growth, and the industries who profit off of sprawl will not have to pay for any of its costs.

My bigger concern is not a few million for non-profit groups to do wildlife conservation. I just quetions whether I-40 needs to be 6 lanes through Holbrook, or I-10 needs to be 6 lanes through Willcox. But again, would rural voters pay the tax if they didn't get something out of it?