That must have been a tough position for her to take, given her consistent opposition to Huckelberry’s initiatives, but she also has been under some pressure to get behind a solution, any solution, to the road problem. Miller defended the idea up through the end of the week but got increasing pushback from supporters.

This week, her tune changed to support of the sales-tax idea — with conditions that she did not get back to me to expand on Thursday. My best guess is that whatever conditions she demands will be unacceptable to the Democratic board members, and we’ll end up in the same place we are now, with Huckelberry’s property-tax plan.

Miller would come out of that looking both pragmatic, for having offered a solution, and principled for opposing the solution that her constituents despised. That’s having it both ways.

If the board ends up unanimously approving a new sales tax, we’ll end up in the surprising position of having the county pile one new sales tax for roads on top of the city of Tucson’s new, voter-approved sales tax for roads.

Smith in for CD1

State Sen. Steve Smith is clearing a path to be the Republican candidate for the U.S. House in Congressional District 1.