IN FOCUS - Mar. 14, 2025

More like “The ‘No' Pueblo.”

Tucson city leaders were sent back to the drawing board after voters rejected a half-cent sales tax increase to make up for declining local revenues. 

The $800 million “Safe & Vibrant City” initiative faced a variety of headwinds that a coalition boasting state, county and local electeds and constellation of public safety and labor unions could not overcome. 

Municipal special elections scheduled four months following blockbuster presidential races tend to attract only hyper-partisans, and rarely the broad majorities needed to pass controversial measures like tax increases. Prop 414 was further hamstrung politically for dedicating nearly 70% of the tax increase toward public safety. Opposition ranged between the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter wanting the funding to go toward social services and the anti-tax increase Pima County GOP.

And while inflation may be subsiding in Phoenix, prices for basic goods remain stubbornly high in southern Arizona. High inflation combined with Tucson’s sluggish economic growth compared to the rest of the state, there’s little appetite--even in deep blue Tucson--for higher taxes.