Over the next five years, starting next year, residents of Phoenix will start seeing the bond funds put into a number of projects, including expansion or upgrading of 11 cultural or performing arts centers. The Arizona Science Center in downtown Phoenix will get another 10,000 sf of exhibition space, the Museo Chicano will add 4,000 sf, the Phoenix Theater will build a 19,736-sf building and the Valley Youth Theatre will get $1.4 million for a permanent home.

Ten new fire stations will be built throughout the Valley, most of them on the edge of town, to the south in Ahwatukee Foothills and in far north Phoenix. The fire department will also hire 200 new firefighters to accommodate residential expansion that has occurred over the past few years. Bond funds will also be used to build new police stations, a crime lab and digital radio system and purchase helicopters.

The city's property tax rate will not change with the passage of the bond propositions. The total cost of the program will be $1.6 billion over 32 years, with interest and principal. All projects will be built in the next five years.

Phoenix voters also approved, by a more than 2 to 1 margin, Proposition 202, which bars the City Council from enacting an emergency clause for measures of more than $3 million that aren't related to police, fire protection or other essential needs. Any other measure the City Council votes on beyond that will be subject to voter approval.

The new law guarantees a 30-day waiting period before new ordinances are enacted, which would allow residents time to collect signatures to challenge high-priced expenditures to a public vote. Emergency clauses allow those ordinances to take effect immediately.

Proposition 202 grew out of the public's outrage over the city's failed attempts in 1999 and 2000 to help finance a $112-million downtown hotel at the Colllier Center without public approval.

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Voters Pass $753.9 Mil-Bond Package to 'Will' Improvements

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