Investing in efforts to curb violent crime, improve neighborhoods and funding programs for young people are all part of Prop. 414, the $800 million sales-tax plan Tucson voters are being asked to approve in March.
Dubbed the “Safe & Vibrant City” ballot measure, it would raise a projected $800 million by adding 0.5% to the city’s sales over the next 10 years, according to the city. The current sales tax rate in the city is 8.7%.
The proposition is split into five different areas, deemed “quality-of-life” categories by the city. Called the “Neighborhood & Community Resilience,” the categories dealing with investments in neighborhoods, youth and anti-crime efforts will account for about 17% of the revenue collected overall. By comparison, most of the funding for categories directly for police and fire account for about 43% of the total proposition funding.
From bus stop upgrades to non-emergency police staffing, workforce development programs and clean-up efforts, this category of Prop. 414 would receive about $13 million a year.
Tucson City Manager Tim Thomure says the funding is needed to continue the level of service the city provides, but to also expand them in the future.
“We don’t have the current financial resources to do all of the work that’s shown there,” he told the Star about the plans in the proposition. “It is our belief that the people of Tucson want more, and they want better, (but that) exceeds our financial resources. So that’s why we need an additional revenue.”
This financial situation is something that Thomure has voiced concern about since the city council called for this election last year. In September he said Prop. 414 was built as a reaction to a projected $400 million loss of state-shared revenue over the next decade due to the Arizona Legislature’s adoption of a flat rate state income tax that was signed by former Gov. Doug Ducey in 2022.
From bus stop upgrades to more workforce development programs and neighborhood clean-up efforts, Prop. 414’s “Neighborhood & Community Resilience” category amounts to about $130 million over the next decade for a range of quality of life issues.
That was like a “reset” of the revenues the city normally got, Thomure said. While revenues are coming back, they’re doing so “from a much lower place than what it was.”
If the voters don’t pass Prop. 414, there wouldn’t be any immediate cuts, but the situation would worsen over time, he said.
“If Prop. 414 weren’t to pass, it’s not that the sky is falling, it’s not that Tucson dries up and blows away overnight, but you would see less service in areas of public safety, community safety and housing,” he said. But a few years down the road, city-operated programs could be at risk, such as Housing First, and the ability to partner with community organizations that have resources for workforce development and early childhood programs, Thomure said.
Local leaders, first responder unions and community groups are among supporters of Prop. 414, writing dozens of letters urging voters to pass it. For example, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said investments in early childhood education and workforce development included in the proposition will help address some root causes of crime.
The Yes on 414 Coalition says the projected annual investments of $1 million, for workforce development will “promote economic opportunity” by connecting workers with in-demand jobs, according to their website.
But critics, like Michael Guymon, president of the Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce, say that while any investment in workforce development programs is sound, using a sales tax to do so is not.
“There are ways that we can address this issue, and quite frankly, we have successfully been addressing this issue,” Guymon said Friday. “But to foist a sales tax increase, a regressive sales tax increase … when we’re in a community that has 20% poverty, these programs are destined to and designed to assist those where you’re basically putting a higher sales tax on that same population that you’re ultimately trying to serve.”
If passed by voters, about $3 million a year would go toward investing in workforce development and early childhood programs.
There is one item under the category that would come in the form of a one-time expense: $20 million to make wide-ranging upgrades to the city’s bus stops.
Upgrades would come in a tiered system, where the base level would bring “shade shelters, static information displays, benches, solar powered lighting, and a tamper-proof trash receptacle” to city bus stops, according to the city. The highest-end upgrades would receive that plus additional native vegetation, green stormwater infrastructure, a dynamic information kiosk, an emergency call button, security cameras and a bike-share station.
Through this category, investments are also planned to expand the city’s Team Up to Clean Up program, which operates citywide cleanup efforts, money to maintain the city’s expansion of trees in urban areas and community-based violence intervention efforts. And it includes funding for “Somos Uno,” the city’s plan to manage its “cultural heritage” assets.
But the largest year-over-year expense listed under this category would be expanding the police department’s ranks of community service officers, who generally handle matters in which a police officer is not needed. This marks the first time the city has asked voters to use bond funds to “pay for people,” Thomure says.
In total, across all five categories of Prop. 414, about one-third of the revenues projected to be generated over the 10-year life of the tax would be dedicated to paying for salaries, he said.
It raises an important question: What happens to positions funded once the 10-year tax ends?
“If nobody else does anything to us, state legislature, feds, and we can actually continue to just operate within what our new revenues are now that we expect and project to grow,” then the city would be able to absorb those staffing costs within its general fund, Thomure told the Star.
At a projected $2.6 million per year, the city says it could hire an additional 40 officers. However, another $2.6 million in the proposition’s “Enhanced Emergency Response” category, would mean the city could hire about 80 new community service officers in all.
“I’m betting on growth, I’m betting on growth that every year we’ll get a little more capacity in the general fund … (but) we’re not betting on an extension,” Thomure said. “I don’t think we’re gambling. Sure, we’re taking a calculated risk, and with good financial management that the city has, as evidenced by all of the bond rating agencies, we continue to make good decisions, to not over-invest money, and to build in the capacity to absorb.”
And when salary increases occur, the general fund will absorb those cost increases if Prop. 414 cannot, Thomure said.
Kathleen Winn, chair of the Pima County Republican Party, says before asking voters for more money, the city should be asking itself what tough budget decisions have to be made. As a self-described proponent of increased law enforcement presence, Winn said if the city wants voters to prioritize community service officer staffing, it “needs to prioritize the police officers, and they haven’t,” despite TPD having the biggest budget among city departments.
“The community service officers are a great asset to have, but we also need to fix the base pay of the current officers … one of the things that we’ve seen is that, TPD has been training officers, and lose those officers to Marana, to Oro Valley, to Mesa. We are the second-largest county in the state, and our wages are not at a par with the other people doing the job in (similar cities),” Winn said. “I think that you need to have some social programs, but when you prioritize social programs over public safety, which is what they’ve done, and then you come to us and say ‘we need you to fund public safety,’ you make it a priority, and we can make it a priority.”
April Putney, who represents the No Prop. 414 Tucson coalition, said the group “really enjoys” items included in the Neighborhood & Community Resilience section of the proposition, but the money allocated to those efforts is too small. And, she said, it relies on the wrong source of funding.
And while increasing the number of community service officers is a step in the right direction, Putney said, the coalition she represents does not think it’s a “perfect program.” The coalition would prefer boosts to staffing for the city’s housing or health and wellness departments first.
“There are some excellent strategies that are layered. They have been testing and have been proven to work through data … when it comes to actual goals of public safety, these kind of community investments are proven to actually improve public safety, especially in areas where this is higher violence,” Putney said.
“But no matter how you get around it, the sales tax is regressive, “ she said. “If you’re going to do that … we’d e’d like to see these funded differently, without asking for such a regressive sales tax from the poor.”
