The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Michael Guymon
The Daily Star’s Tim Steller and I, it turns out, have a lot of similar observations about Proposition 414.
“Tucsonans have been receptive to tax increases, bond issues and similar elections for years now, including one that is making progress on repairing our streets,” Steller wrote in his Jan. 19 column. “But this grab-bag proposal, dubbed the Safe & Vibrant City proposition, seemingly came out of nowhere.”
It certainly wasn’t based on robust community engagement. Steller later reported that about 380 people responded to a survey that laid the groundwork for Prop 414. Fewer than 400 in a city of over 500,000, in an interconnected region with a million people? Meanwhile, attempts by the Tucson Metro Chamber and other groups representing businesses large and small to fully engage with the city on this proposal went unanswered.
I have deep experience in helping our city make tough decisions about spending cuts. I was chief of staff to the Ward 6 council member when the economy tanked after 9/11. I very vividly recall the challenging budget conversations in 2002, when Mayor & Council study sessions were focused on how to cut $100 million out of the budget over the next two fiscal years. We did it without raising the sales tax.
Again in 2012, in the aftermath of the Great Recession, I worked with an organization that partnered with the city on economic development projects. Looking back at the memos from that time, the city faced a $55 million shortfall. The council made the necessary cuts to balance the budget without raising the sales tax.
“It also strikes me that if this tax passes, and [the city’s] total spending surges past $2.5 billion per year, we’ll probably be asked again before long to tax ourselves more for some other area of unmet need. After all, that’s the pattern the city is setting,” Steller wrote in his Aug. 31 column.
The city has argued that it has flexibility with only its general fund, or about $750 million to $800 million a year. But that pot, too, has ballooned — by close to 60% in the past 10 years.
This all comes down to priorities. Public safety has clearly not been prioritized in the recent past. Of Tucson’s general fund expenditures, just 30% is allocated to police, compared to 41% of Tempe’s budget, 48% of Phoenix’s, and 53% of Mesa’s.
Tucson is falling short.
“There’s no question Tucson needs to upgrade its public safety,” Steller wrote in the Jan. 19 column. “The number of traffic deaths is alarming. The number of murders went up last year over 2023, rising from 58 to 65. Street takeovers and drug users’ congregations are a regular menace.”
Tucson’s sales tax is already the highest in the region. As rightly asked in the Arizona Daily Star’s editorial recommending a no on 414, “... since all of these programs are so popular and would provide potential solutions to some of the city’s most intractable problems, why hasn’t the city found the wherewithal to institute them already?”
Instead of growing our local economy through wage and population growth, the fiscal growth within the city has been primarily based on local tax increases. That’s just not sustainable, according to a study commissioned by the Tucson Metro Chamber and other organizations that compared the budgets and expenditures of Arizona’s 11 major cities.
As families across this region need to make tough decisions to live within their means, so should the city of Tucson. I don’t want to wage battle with the City, but the Chamber’s members — mostly small businesses — have reached a tipping point. Please join us in voting no on Prop 414 so we can get back to the drawing board and ensure we prioritize public safety and balance the budget without raising the sales tax again.
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