This just in: Fred Ronstadt is back from a week in DC (on whose dime?) and claims in his “Ward 6 Weekly” email that he’s personally responsible for bringing home the Federal transportation bacon.

He is specifically claiming credit for a federal earmark of $75 million to be used as a match with local funds to build the modern streetcar/trolley system running between University Medical Center and Rio Nuevo and beyond. Whaaaa?

Those of us who have been watching Fred know that he has spent the last five years fighting every form of transit investment in Tucson, and has gone out of his way to slander rail transit in particular. While it’s nice to see that Fred’s apparently changing his tune in an election year, it’s important that voters get the facts.

Fact: When the City of Tucson originally sent its transportation wishlist to Congress two years ago, there were no requests for any transit projects at all. In fact, there were only requests for roads at the edges. Congressman Grijalva was so angry at this that he called me up, as the founder of Citizens for a Sensible Transportation Solution, and asked what we would like to see funded. I requested the $75 million for the trolley/streetcar extension, and the Congressman worked hard to get that earmark placed in the Federal legislation and get our fair share from the Feds.

Glad to set the story straight. Let’s see if Fred comes clean. I’m not holding my breath.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 11th, 2005 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Politician Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.