Tempe voters question Proposition 424 sales tax increase

Tempe residents pressed city officials at a meeting in September for specifics on how a proposed 0.5% sales tax increase would be spent and whether those priorities addressed existing problems ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

The proposed increase would fund public safety, transportation and early childhood care and preschool education. Of the 0.5% increase, 0.3 percentage points would go to public safety and 0.1 percentage points each to transportation and early childhood care and preschool education. Food for home consumption would be exempt from the tax. If approved, the increase would add 50 cents to every $100 in affected purchases.

At the Kiwanis Recreation Center on Sept. 15, the city held a public forum to explain Proposition 424 and allow residents to ask questions before the Nov. 3 election.

City of Tempe documents show that state legislative actions decreased the city’s annual revenue by about $25.7 million. Eric Anderson, Tempe’s city attorney, said one of the major changes came from a state law.

“The state passed a law that says cities cannot collect residential rental tax,” Anderson said.

According to the city, public safety funding could support firefighters, police officers, park rangers and neighborhood safety measures including street and park lighting. The funding for transportation could be used for transit, biking paths and pedestrian needs. The funding for early childhood care and preschool education could support free and reduced cost programs for families that qualify.

Tempe city documents say that if Proposition 424 does not pass, the city may have to consider service reductions that could affect both city staffing and public services. If the measure fails, transit routes and frequency could be reduced along with longer emergency response times, cuts to programs and service hours and postponed or eliminated infrastructure projects.

Tempe City Attorney Anderson said the deficit does not mean the city is $25.7 million in debt. Instead, the city is using part of its unassigned fund balance, which Anderson described as a “rainy day fund,” to help balance the budget.

“It’s a deficit in the sense that to adopt a balanced budget this year that includes some of the rainy day fund savings,” Anderson said.

The unassigned fund balance consists of General Fund resources after other funds are accounted for and is available for discretionary spending. Tempe’s policy states the balance needs to be between 20% and 30% of General Fund revenue to help address revenue losses or uncertain economic conditions.

Meeting attendee Diane Alleycats said she remains undecided about Proposition 424 and wants more details about how the money would be spent within each category.

“What are you doing with it specifically? Not here’s what we might do,” Alleycats said.

Anderson said Proposition 424 would restrict the revenue to the three categories, but the Tempe City Council would determine the specific allocations within those categories through the annual budget process.

“That’s why we say annually the council will decide how that money is spent,” Anderson said.

Tempe begins preparing its budgets in November and adopts the final budgets in June, with the city’s fiscal year beginning July 1.

Joanne Markis, who attended Tempe’s informational meeting on Proposition 424, said she supports the measure and the transportation funding is very important to her family.

“My son, who’s special needs, he counts on it. So I would hate for it to be reduced in any way, either less routes or less often, would be a big disadvantage to him,” Markis said.

Benjamin Goldstein is a student at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines, https://www.yourvalley.net/civility-checklist/.