A new half-cent sales tax proposed by the city of Tucson is projected to raise $800 million over the next decade if approved by voters during a special mail-in election on March 11, 2025.
But city officials and mutual aid groups are at odds over how that money should be spent, and the dispute threatens approval of the tax altogether.
On one side, city officials have lauded Proposition 414, also called the Safe and Vibrant City ballot measure, saying it will funnel much-needed dollars to evidence-based support for police and fire personnel, as well as affordable housing and shelters.
“While we are investing in housing, resources and services for our residents, we are investing in our police, fire and 911 communications departments at unprecedented levels,” Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said in her annual speech Tuesday. “Replacing aging vehicles and apparatus, updating the technologies that keep us and our first responders safe means that our public safety team can better serve Tucsonans.”
On the other side, a coalition of mutual aid and progressive groups have raised concerns about allocating the majority of the funding to police spending that includes new vehicles and an aircraft.
“To see a city sales tax that doesn’t directly invest in the community that will help the people paying the tax, that is not OK,” said April Putney, an organizer with No Prop 414 Coalition, who wants to see more funding for low-barrier shelters and affordable housing. “If there is going to be a tax we want it to directly invest in the community and solve the issues the community is facing. It’s just not affordable to live.”
The Tucson Metro Chamber’s board of directors voted to oppose the measure.
“Tucson absolutely needs to address public safety, homelessness, housing affordability, and other critical community investments. However, we believe there’s a more effective way to do so — one that doesn’t increase everyday costs for families and businesses or weaken our region’s economic competitiveness,” said Tucson Metro Chamber president and CEO Michael Guymon in a news release.
The Pima County Republican Party’s new chairperson Kathleen Winn has also come out against the sales tax.
The proposition is one of several funding and planning efforts in the region this year that depend in part on public engagement, and could be a bellwether for how residents feel about city needs.
Pima County voters can weigh in on another half-cent sales tax to fund transportation improvements this fall, and officials are currently taking feedback on the budget items through a survey until the end of January. The city of Tucson is also soliciting feedback through January on a draft of Plan Tucson 2025, a master planning document that lays out program and land-use decisions for the next two decades.
In recent months, Tucson has received accolades for its economic performance and standard of living, including an upgrade in its rating from economic analysis firm Moody’s as well as inclusion on the list of America’s best cities by consulting firm Resonance Consultancy.
But as mutual aid groups that serve unhoused populations note, and as the mayor acknowledged in her speech, the city has seen a rise in need among unhoused populations and continues to stagger from a 60% rise in rent costs between 2017 and 2023.
Police and fire staffing, upgraded vehicles in budget plan
The half-cent sales tax would move the city’s sales tax from 2.6% to 3.1%, and is projected to earn $800 million over the next 10 years.
Tucson residents currently pay an 8.7% sales tax — this figure includes the state’s (5.6%), county’s (0.5%) and current city’s (2.6%) sales tax rate. The half-cent increase would raise the total to 9.2%.
The proposed projects that would be paid for by the half-cent sales tax are:
- Affordable housing and shelter investments, which include money to build affordable housing, preserving existing city-owned housing stock and funding for low-barrier shelters.
- Neighborhood and community resilience investments, which include workforce development programs, community clean-up dollars and funding for the Office of Violence Prevention & Intervention that seeks to reduce gun violence.
- Enhanced emergency response, which includes increased staffing for the Tucson Fire Department and Tucson Police Department.
- Technology investments that include body-worn cameras, updates to the Computer Aided Dispatch system and portable radios, and a fixed-wing aircraft for the Tucson Police Department.
- Capital investments for first responders, including ballistic vests, police patrol vehicles, fire trucks, and upgrades to the police and fire training academy.
The city breaks down the funding as 65.75% of the funding allocated to public safety investments and 34.25% of the funding allocated to community resiliency investments. About 17.5% of the funding is for the category of affordable housing and shelter investments.
If approved, the allocation of the funding would be overseen by a commission who would recommend to the mayor and city council how the funding should be spent over the next 10 years.
Ballots for the special mail-only election will go out Feb. 12, 2024.
Mutual aid groups raise concern
The opposition to the measure has been led by a coalition of groups called the No Prop 414 Coalition, which includes several mutual aid organizations that support unhoused communities and the Tucson branch of the Democratic Socialists of America.
The group held a protest near the entrance to the mayor’s speech Tuesday, and have also written op-eds for local media, run a social media campaign, and plan to knock on Tucson residents’ doors ahead of the election.
Putney said the funding breakdown in the measure shows city government prioritized funding for police and surveillance technology over dire needs like housing.
She also raised concerns about whether the priorities put forward by Tucson residents on the city’s Budget Engagement Survey for Fiscal Year 2025 were reflected in the funding proposals for the tax. The Top 10 funding priorities collected from 358 survey responses included primarily non-police requests, such as the need for affordable housing, water security, good paying jobs and investment in city parks.
“It really feels like gaslighting,” said Putney. “Marketing it as a solution to crime and social issues and calling it a safe and vibrant city, but when you look at the budget line items the amount of funding given to police as opposed to community investment and housing first is much more.”
Funding would plug budget gap caused by state flat tax
Romero’s response to critics of the proposal is that public safety funds meet a community need she hears from constituents.
“Every single tax dollar that comes into the city of Tucson is put to work based on what Tucsonans have been telling us they want and need,” she said. “Tucsonans want the city of Tucson to deal with the issues of the unsheltered and the opioid and fentanyl crisis, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
The half-cent sales tax was also proposed, in part, to fill a gap caused by a significant reduction in state tax dollars largely following the implementation of former Gov. Doug Ducey’s 2.5% flat tax, said Romero. “I don’t like to ask for additional funds from Tucsonans, but we are seeing cuts coming from the state,” she said.
In the fall, city manager Tim Thomure projected Tucson would face a nearly $400 million loss in state-shared revenue because of the flat tax.
If the measure doesn’t pass, housing support programs could be at risk as the city tries to maintain the police and road responsibilities that are part of the city charter, said Romero on Tuesday.
“It could mean the loss of our Housing First program. It could mean the loss of our community safety, health and wellness program,” she said. “It could really be detrimental. That’s the reality.”
Putney, with the No Prop 414 Coalition, said she disagreed with the mayor’s framing of funding for policing needs as integral to safety.
“When it really comes to public safety and people investing in themselves, investing in people having roofs over their heads is safety,” she said. “When they are asking Tucsonans to pay from their own pockets with a sales tax, I don’t think that it is unreasonable to expect that their taxes go towards programs that directly help them.”
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