A Hail Mary for Tucson’s problems

Election incoming … Sales tax on deck … And being a twin isn’t easy.

Ballots for the Tucson City Council-referred Proposition 414 will start hitting mailboxes next month, and voters will have to approve or shoot down a half-cent sales tax increase that would raise an estimated $80 million per year for first responders and housing services.

However, the proposal is drawing fire from both the left and the right sides of the aisle just two months before the March 11 election, making for some unlikely bedfellows.

Prop 414 will be the first election for Tucsonans this year, but not the last.

This fall, voters will elect three city council members, and weigh in on a long-term plan for the city of Tucson, creatively titled “Plan Tucson.” And very likely, they’ll vote on an extension of the Regional Transportation Authority with its ability to tax residents for transportation funding.

City officials say Prop 414 is the culmination of a six-month conversation with the community about how to address Tucson’s largest problems. They’re asking voters to raise the city’s sales tax rate from 8.7% to 9.2%, essentially adding a nickel to the price of a $10 cheeseburger.

Both the Pima County Republican Party and the Tucson Metro Chamber have come out against Prop 414, arguing that city leaders are pushing a new sales tax for the next decade that will expand the city’s budget at the price of hurting local businesses and taxpayers.

The city of Tucson’s tax rate is higher than statewide average for sales taxes, which critics say is 8.1%.

While the local GOP has long argued the Democratic-controlled Tucson City Council has been a poor steward of taxpayer funds, the Tucson Metro Chamber’s opposition is a break from its tradition of largely supporting city propositions.

“The Chamber has been, and will continue to be, a ready partner for the city in working on big issues, especially those that increase funding for public safety,” Tucson Metro Chamber president and CEO Michael Guymon said in a press release. “But Prop 414 lacks that focused approach, and we question its proposed impact on city services as well as the impact of higher taxes on residents.”

The new chairwoman of the Pima County Republican Party, Kathleen Winn, believes Prop 414 would hurt the economy if passed. She said the city is using federal dollars for new programs launched during the Biden Administration, and should re-assess those programs in order to fully fund the police and fire departments.

“I don’t believe that raising taxes here in Tucson is a solution to these issues,” Winn said, referring to rising crime, a spike in homelessness, and the opioid/fentanyl crisis.

The progressive No on Prop 414 coalition argues it’s a bait and switch, focusing too much on public safety infrastructure at a time when the city of Tucson says it should have 13,000 more housing units to meet demand and another 22,600 by 2033.

City Manager Tim Thomure said the city conducted an exhaustive public outreach campaign to find out what Tucson residents wanted from their elected leaders and said Prop 414 divides resources between two of citizens’ main priorities – public safety and housing.

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The funds set aside for law enforcement is an extension of the city's long commitment to public safety, he said, noting that voters backed other public-approved initiatives like 2017’s Prop 101 – which provided $187.5 million to buy new equipment for the Tucson police and fire departments.

As the five-year Prop 101 began to wind down, Thomure said the Tucson City Council then pledged another $90 million directly out of the general fund to first responders, noting that at the time the city had enough tax revenues coming in to increase funding to law enforcement without needing to raise the sales tax with another proposition.

“Revenues were trending upward until the state Legislature changed the game,” Thomure told the Tucson Agenda, referring to Gov. Doug Ducey’s flat tax.

The successor to Prop 101 was Prop 411 which voters approved in 2022 to extend the half-cent sales tax. But those funds were set aside specifically for the next 10 years for road repairs.

Revenues began to fall shortly after the passage of then-Governor Doug Ducey’s flat tax plan, which Thomure said will cost the city roughly $40 million in funding a year.

But the most damning criticism may come from Winn, who notes that a new tax does not guarantee that Tucson officials will be able to make a dent in crime or stem the growing number of people living on the streets.

We’ve been building our tracking lists in Skywolf, our legislative-tracking service for policy professionals (sign up today!), and we came across a couple from Rep. Gail Griffin, a Republican from Cochise County who has a lot of sway on water legislation.

Griffin is no fan of Cochise County voters’ decision to create an active management area, basically, local groundwater protections. She introduced two bills to provide ways to get rid of those designations.

• HB2088 – would require the state’s top water official to review subsequent active management areas to determine whether they still meet the criteria for the designation. If they don’t meet the criteria, state officials can remove the designation, following public hearings.

• HB2089 – would allow voters in an active management area to petition to remove the designation after 10 years. County officials would have to forward petitions to state officials, who would take a look at groundwater conditions and decide whether the regulations are necessary or there should be an election.

No parking: Tucson officials are trying to tweak the zoning code to make it less car-centric, and that means taking a hard look at all the unused parking spots in town, the Tucson Sentinel’s Natalie Robbins reports. Places like the often-empty lot at El Con Mall show the zoning code’s minimum parking requirements are out of date, city officials say.

No charges: Pima County Attorney Laura Conover offered a lengthy reaction to a grand jury’s decision to refuse to prosecute a Tucson Police officer who shot and killed the wheelchair-bound Richard Lee Richards in 2021. Conover praised her colleagues and said she would respect the grand jury’s decision. She will not attempt to file charges a third time.

“We will respect the decision from here on out,” Conover said.

No death penalty: State officials are resuming executions after a two-year pause, which has sparked widespread debate. On The Bill Buckmaster Show on Friday, Conover said her office has proven that there isn’t a need for the death penalty, noting she has met privately with grieving families to discuss her reasons not to pursue the death penalty.

No need for it: Tucson state Sen. Priya Sundareshan is one of the Democratic lawmakers pushing back on an immigration bill making its way through the U.S. Senate. The bill would require federal officials to detain undocumented immigrants suspected of crimes like theft and burglary, while also giving more power to state officials, the Republic’s Rey Covarrubias, Jr. reports. Sundareshan called out the bill’s supporters for pushing the “same decades-old narrative” that incorrectly casts immigrants as “inherently violent criminals.”¹

No more radio: Right-wing radio host Chris DeSimone announced he was leaving Tucson Radio Station KVOI in two weeks and moving to a video podcast model.

“Thanks to all of you for your faithful support of me, Matt, Ed, Joe and our amazing sponsors over 15 years,” DeSimone wrote in an email to friends and colleagues.

No stone unturned: After years of reporting on deaths at the Pima County jail, Arizona Public Media and Arizona Luminaria teamed up on a documentary that they say “takes a hard look both behind and beyond the bars.” The 28-minute documentary probes “how the criminal justice system often leaves people locked up instead of offering help.”

On Friday, we laughed at the difficulties that local politicos have telling the difference between local Democrats Tom and Ted Prezelski.

They’re twins, and they’re both active in local politics – Tom was a state lawmaker and Ted ran one of the best local political blogs back in the heyday of blogging (along with many other accomplishments between them).

But the Pima County Democratic Party isn’t the only one that has trouble telling the two apart, as Ted quipped in the comments section of Friday’s email.

1. Correction: On Friday, we misstated how U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari voted on the immigration bill we mentioned in Other News. She voted against the bill.