Tacoma voters to weigh permanent tax hikes for street improvements. What to know

Yahoo

10-04-2025

Tacoma voters will decide on April 22 whether to embrace increased taxes expected to raise millions of dollars annually for the second iteration of a sweeping city streets improvement plan.
The city's Streets Initiative II, which will be on the ballot in the upcoming special election, would succeed Tacoma's major 10-year effort to upgrade streets that voters approved in 2015. That tax package, referred to as the Streets Initiative, is set to soon expire.
Streets Initiative II, or Proposition 1 as it's named on the ballot, would increase utility tax on natural gas, electric and phone utilities by 2% and bump the regular property tax levy by 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value beginning next year, according to the city.
The tax hikes would replace rate increases imposed by the first streets initiative, which had raised the same taxes by 1.5% and 20 cents, respectively. The current utility tax rate expires next February while the existing property tax rate ends in December, the city said.
To put it into perspective, the proposed new utility and property taxes combined are expected to cost the average Tacoman homeowner roughly $98 per year — or about $8 per month — more than they have been paying under the expiring tax rates, according to the city's explanatory statement of Prop. 1 on the voters' pamphlet.
Qualifying seniors and certain others would be exempt from the rate increases, the city said.
While the 2015 streets initiative had a decade-long shelf life, Streets Initiative II is a permanent levy, city spokesperson Maria Lee told The News Tribune in December after the City Council unanimously approved sending the measure to the special election.
The first tax package represented a nearly $400 million investment in improving city infrastructure over the past decade, accounting for grant-matched funds and other dollars, according to the city.
Streets Initiative II is projected to raise $37 million each year for a bevy of road-related upgrades in Tacoma, including street repairs and maintenance, safety improvements on high-risk corridors and a betterment of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, the city said in its ballot measure explanation.
A News Tribune analysis in September showed how the city's first streets initiative largely accomplished what Tacoma officials intended it to do by vastly improving the condition of residential streets, which make up 61% of the city's entire street network. The initiative, by design, also paid much less attention to arterial roads — the more heavily trafficked, commercial pathways in the city such as Portland and 6th avenues — that ultimately declined in condition as a result.
City officials previously noted that street quality wasn't the lone benchmark for progress, underscoring street safety as a key objective. They cited the city's Vision Zero initiative, which aims to end traffic deaths and severe injuries by 2035. Vision Zero embraces a complete-street philosophy that incorporates sidewalks, crosswalks, flashing beacons, bike lanes and other accompaniments.
Still, the differing trajectories of residential and arterial road condition under the first streets initiative raised the question of how Tacoma plans to avoid a seesaw effect in the next iteration, particularly since city officials have said Streets Initiative II would heavily focus on arterial roads and multi-modal transportation.
In an interview in September, Public Works director Ramiro Chavez said that the city hadn't ignored arterial work during the first streets initiative, despite a dramatic reduction in maintenance for arterial roads and much more of the initiative's dollars being set aside for residential streets.
If voters approve Streets Initiative II, Chavez said, the city planned to continue to invest in and manage residential streets, too. The city performed work on more than 4,000 residential blocks over the past 10 years — a number which Chavez previously said was anticipated to increase by the end of this year to surpass the city's 5,600-block goal.
In a presentation in December, Chavez told the City Council that Streets Initiative II also would prioritize projects in under-served neighborhoods, which encompassed 64% of Tacoma's highest-risk streets.
'While the 2015 initiative delivered measurable benefits, challenges remain,' Chavez said.
In a joint op-ed in The News Tribune last month, City Council members Kristina Walker and John Hines cast Streets Initiative II as a 'generational investment' and highlighted the first street initiative's positive returns. The city improved nearly 70% of the city's residential streets, secured $2.25 for every $1 of initiative funds and consistently had a clean audit, they said.
Streets Initiative II has been endorsed by the entire City Council, Tacoma Firefighters Union Local 31, local transportation-advocacy group Downtown On the Go, the Pierce County Central Labor Council, Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello and others.
In a voters' pamphlet filed with the Pierce County Elections Office, the proponent committee, Yes to Safer Streets, wrote that Prop. 1's focus on fixing major roads would result in millions of dollars in workforce development, reduce traffic deaths and avoid lengthier and costlier repairs in the future.
'The cost of poor infrastructure — traffic delays, accidents, and vehicle wear — also impacts businesses and residents,' the committee wrote. 'Deferred road maintenance leads to higher long-term costs, as roads deteriorate faster without timely repairs. Prop 1 will grow our economy, reduce traffic fatalities and, in the long run, save Tacomans money.'
The opponent committee urged voters to reject increasing taxes and suggested that the city had failed to act and now sought to pass off a burden onto taxpayers, which would hit people with limited incomes particularly hard.
'Why haven't they used the funds they already had to begin this work years earlier? How many lives were lost due to their inaction?' the committee wrote. 'Why didn't they just resubmit the same tax rates as last time? After all, assessed values have gone up 153% since (the) first 'Roads Proposition' passed. Where are the taxpayers in support? All endorsers have vested interest in passage.'
The city said it's hosting information sessions at two libraries on Saturday to discuss Prop. 1.
One session is scheduled at the South Tacoma Library Branch, 3411 S. 56th St., from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. The other is planned at the Swasey Library Branch, 7001 6th Ave., from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Tacoma also has a dedicated webpage on Prop. 1: cityoftacoma.org/SI2. See the voters' pamphlet here: http://bit.ly/4cqJcMx.
Visit PierceCountyWA.gov/elections for information about voting.