Proposition 414's blowout loss sends Tucson officials 'back to the drawing board'

Yahoo

20-03-2025

Tucson leaders are figuring out how to move forward after final election results show city voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure to raise the city's sales tax to pay for public safety and community investment.
At the polls on March 11, Tucson voters voted 2-to-1 against Proposition 414, which would have raised the city's sales tax from 2.6% to 3.1% to give a financial boost to police, firefighters and housing programs, among many others.
Of the total 87,081 ballots cast, about 70%, or 60,758 people, voted against the measure.
As the deadline to present a balanced budget to the Tucson City Council approaches, city officials are looking at alternatives.
'As a city manager, I developed a plan B and I worked with the mayor a bit on what that could look like,' said City Manager Tim Thomure, who added officials "went into the election feeling confident that we would get a positive result."
Thomure is working on next year's budget proposal, which he will present on April 22, and gave the Tucson City Council updates to the budget process at a meeting on Tuesday.
Part of the budget process will mean figuring out how to pay for expanding services that would have seen a boost if the proposition had been successful.
Expanding services in growing areas will mean adding $15 million to an already-expected deficit of $13 million in the budget. Local officials say the deficit is largely caused by a loss of state-shared revenue.
Thomure said he will have to find ways to balance the budget and ring that deficit down to zero. That might include budget cuts and slowing down projects, he said in an interview with The Arizona Republic.
He added Tucson will also look for grants to help reduce the deficit. But the city already does, and Thomure noted the options for grants are not 'very robust."
Although Thomure did not speculate on a reason for the ballot measure's failure, he said city officials must reflect on what happened. Historically, he said, the city and voters have had a 'strong alignment.'
Previous ballot measures that have had a clear benefit for voters passed at the polls, he said, alluding to Proposition 409 in 2012, Proposition 407 in 2018, Proposition 101 in 2017, and Proposition 411 in 2022.
'Did we mishear the citizens about what they wanted? That's possible,' Thomure said. 'Did we reach the point where they're not willing to invest further in the form of a sales tax than what they've been asked? Also, possible. Did we make it too complicated? That's very possible.'
While some opposition was critical of any increases in taxes, others opposed the high allocation of funds to public safety. Two-thirds of the funds that would have been raised by Proposition 414 would have gone to police and fire departments.
One of the most vocal critics of the measure was the No Prop 414 Coalition.
April Putney, a spokesperson for the coalition, faulted the ballot measure for not reflecting the public feedback Tucsonans said they want to be prioritized during public engagement efforts.
'Again and again Tucson has outlined that housing affordability is our top priority, followed by quality city services and programs like education, public transit, mental health care, and park amenities like restrooms,' Putney wrote in an email.
She reiterated that 'funding punishment and criminalization' will not solve Tucson's problems, and that citizens want to invest in data-proven solutions, like quality housing and services.
City Councilmember Kevin Dahl, a Democrat who supported the measure, said he was surprised it lost by such a large margin.
With so many elements in the ballot, he said it's challenging to know if any one issue caused the proposition to fail. Dahl noted a general distrust of government could be a potential cause.
'Tucson is bearing the brunt of concern about government,' Dahl said, noting the mass layoffs, implementation of tariffs, and the shuttering of agencies at the federal level.
Dahl said Proposition 414 was a good measure and highlighted the undefined that wants more public safety and supports the fire department and the city's 311 and 911 systems.
He also said the measure would have continued using community service officers for police-related calls that don't require a sworn officer with a gun.
'I'm very disappointed, but where we go from here, we go back to the drawing board and sharpen our pencils and work it out so that we live within the budget that will be available to us,' he said.
Reach the reporter at [e-mail]. The Republic's coverage of southern Arizona is funded, in part, with a grant from Report for America. Support Arizona news coverage with a tax-deductible donation at supportjournalism.azcentral.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Prop. 414's loss sends Tucson officials 'back to the drawing board'