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Dana Goldstein has a great interview with Janet Napolitano about the difficulties of being a Democratic governor with progressive inclinations in a state that's ground zero for restrictionist sentiment on immigration. Dana also prods Napolitano to talk about transit, and I think Napolitano's framing gets a lot right:
DG: Your transportation plan is built around a sales tax, and must be approved by voters at the ballot. But it seems that throughout the nation, with the exception of a few major cities, asking people to drive less and consider other modes of transportation has not worked very well. That's why we see this pandering from Senators Clinton and McCain on lifting the gas tax. Is mass transit a losing issue?JN: I would disagree. I would think, for example, that light rail to link Tucson to Phoenix to Flag, up the center spine of our state, particularly if there are spokes that go out into other transit, particularly in light of the ever-increasing cost of gasoline, makes a lot of sense from a commercial-traffic standpoint if not just a passenger-traffic standpoint. And again, well over half of these funds are going toward highways and roads. It's going to reduce what I call the time tax. The time tax is the time you spend stuck in traffic. And when you talk to people, they're stuck in traffic, they're not home with their kids, they can't get to work. What's more valuable, your time or your money? Well they're both valuable, but for some people, time is actually at that point worth more, so you've got to cut the time tax.The "time tax." I like that. Dana's full profile of Napolitano is also live on the site, so folks should read both. Meanwhile, I'd be interested to hear the Arizonans out there weigh in on their governor.
