Arizona may see more than $200 million in needed new highway and bridge construction in the next few years, if a new budget proposed by Governor Doug Ducey is approved by the state legislature.

Ducey has agreed to a more than $12.8 billion budget package together by Republican state lawmakers. That package will include, besides the highway and bridge construction funding, $100 million for what is called “pavement protection” efforts targeting roads in 13 rural counties.

The proposal also includes $140 million for the building of broadband infrastructure, and an additional $200 million that will go to a newly-established drought mitigation fund.

The drought mitigation fund is designed to provide funding for such efforts as restoring aquatic ecosystems in response to ongoing drought conditions that are thought to be the worst in Arizona in more than a century.

If ultimately approved by the legislature, the new budget will additionally reduce income and property taxes in anticipation of estimated revenue to the state for the next fiscal year that will probably be around $1 billion above forecasts.

“It’s a down payment on Arizona’s future,” Ducey’s chief of staff Daniel Scarpinato, told reporters after the budget proposal was announced, adding that “the Governor wants to see the state move forward from an economic development standpoint.”

The Arizona Legislature is set to wrap up work on May 31.

​By Garry Boulard