Tucson Voters Overwhelmingly Defeat Tax Hike Proposition – Arizona Daily Independent

Early results show that Tucson’s Proposition 414 is failing about 30% to 70%. That proposition would have increased Tucson’s rate by 0.50, bringing the total rate to 9.20% from the current 8.70%.

Tucson voters have a history of approving sales tax increases whose proponents claim the funds raised will go mostly to public safety.

In 2017, they approved Prop 101, which provided for a “temporary” five-year 0.50% sales tax increase.

In 2022, they approved Prop 411, which extended the 2017 increase for another “temporary” 10 years.

This year, the voters were asked to approve an additional 0.50% ten-year, “temporary” increase, but overwhelmingly refused to approve it.

Some proponents of Prop 414 are blaming lack of police support and Trump’s economic uncertainty for its failure. However, it could be that voters are tired of approving tax increases that fail to fix the problems that proponents claimed they would fix.

Opponents point out that the city could have fixed these problems if it had not spent the extra money they received on the advancement of socialist agendas.

When evaluating the voters’ decision on how to vote, it helps to keep this issue in perspective by looking at some numbers:

CURRENT SALES TAX RATES FOR 4 MAJOR CITIES:

Source:  SALES TAX HANDBOOK

Among the major cities in this sample, Tucson has the second highest total rate of sales taxation at 8.70%. Had the proposed increase been approved, Tucson would have advanced to having the highest overall rate at 9.20%.

However, if we look at the city tax rates alone, Tucson already has the highest rate at 2.60%. Had Prop 414 been approved, that rate would have jumped to 3.10%, which would have been a 19.23% increase.

It could be these numbers, along with the failure of previous tax increases to fix problems, that caused Tucson voters to reject Prop 414.