TUCSON, AZ (February 10, 2025) -- The Tucson Metro Chamber, the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, the Tucson Association of Realtors, the Arizona Multihousing Association, the Tucson New Car Dealers Association, and the Arizona Tourism and Lodging Association have all come out in opposition to Proposition 414.
Monday, Feb. 10, is the final deadline to register to vote for Tucson's Special Election on Proposition 414, the proposed half-cent sales tax for the next ten years. The City of Tucson will mail ballots to all registered voters on Feb. 12 in this all-mail-in election.
Background on Proposition 414, the proposed City of Tucson half-cent sales tax increase slated for a special election on March 11, 2025:
Prop 414 would raise the city’s sales tax rate from 8.7% to 9.2% for 10 years, one of the highest tax rates of any major Arizona city or town, higher than the state average of 8.12%, and higher than the immediate surrounding unincorporated Pima County, currently at 6.1%. Prop 414 would seek to raise funding for varied priorities, including public safety, workforce development, housing, neighborhood investment, urban forestry, arts, culture investments, and more.
Here are the key facts to consider:
- Working families and small businesses struggling to make ends meet in Tucson, with personal incomes below the national average, will bear the brunt of Tucson's 9.2% sales tax rate, which would be the highest of any major Arizona city for the next 10 years.
- The City of Tucson voters are already bearing the burden of the greatest sales tax increase of any peer city in Arizona over the last 10 years bypassing three other sales tax increases. When will it be enough?
- Tucson’s sales tax would be over 3% more than the sales tax just on the other side of city limits in unincorporated Pima County
- Six months into the current fiscal year, the city is projecting it will end the year with a $22 million budget surplus. When it adopted its budget last summer, the city had projected it would take in $758 million in revenues, and actual revenues are beating expectations. We do not need a new sales tax to cover a surplus.
- The city leadership should fully fund essential services, like public safety, first within Tucson’s nearly $2.4 billion budget. As a comparison, here are the percentages of General Funds allocated to police in other communities
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- Mesa – 53%
- Phoenix – 48%
- Tempe – 41%
- Tucson – 30%
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- The budget has increased spending by over 50% in the last 10 years. Additional taxes should be considered only after these mandated needs are met to address other priorities.
- The City argues that current budget concerns are due to the state’s income tax reduction to a 2.5% flat tax rate, but adjustments were made to the revenue formula to ensure that cities were not impacted in the long term under the legislation. City sales tax numbers are up already in 2025, and the proposed annual revenue for Prop 414 will far exceed any revenue shortfalls from the state now and into the future.
- An independent economic analysis we commissioned shows no clear evidence that the city initially attempted to avoid a tax increase by identifying additional budget efficiencies within the current budget. Other cities struggling with revenue challenges have found other ways in their budgets to achieve better outcomes without raising taxes or reducing services.
- The City has also offered diverse revenue solutions, such as reinstating bus fares, which would generate $10-13 million annually. Tucson is the only community in Arizona that still offers free bus services.
- We are concerned about budget oversight, given that the City of Tucson, with a simple majority vote among the Tucson City Council at any point during the next ten years, could change the budget priorities the voters approved in 2025.
To learn more about Prop 414, visit: No414.com.