ARIZONA NEWS

Fate of half-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects is in Valley voters’ hands

Oct 29, 2024, 5:00 AM

Prop 479 Maricopa County transportation sales tax...

Crews install overhead directional signs above the westbound Interstate 10 collector-distributor road as part of the Broadway Curve Improvement Project. (Arizona Department of Transportation Photo)

(Arizona Department of Transportation Photo)

PHOENIX – Proposition 479, which asks Phoenix-area voters to extend a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation, is tucked away near the bottom of Maricopa County’s four-page ballot.

Unlike some of the 13 statewide ballot measures in the Nov. 5 general election, Maricopa County Prop 479 is fairly straightforward.

If the proposal passes, a half-cent county sales tax that has existed for four decades will continue through 2045. If the measure fails, the tax will disappear, cutting off the primary funding mechanism for Valley transportation projects.

What is the history of Prop 479?

The regional transportation tax has been in place since 1985, the year after Maricopa County voters established it through Prop 300. In 2004, voters approved a 20-year extension through the end of 2025 as Prop 400.

Under state law, Maricopa County can’t ask voters to approve a transportation sales tax without permission from the Arizona Legislature.

That led to wrangling between Republicans and Democrats over the next 20-year extension as Prop 400 got closer to its expiration date.

The sides found enough common ground to pass a bill authorizing what became Prop 479 with bipartisan support in the summer of 2023.

How Prop 479 funding can help land federal grants

While it might be easy to miss amid all the circles to mark on Maricopa County’s lengthy ballots, Prop 479 is a multibillion-dollar question. And if voters reject this 20-year extension, the funding loss could go beyond the money raised by the sales tax.

“The half-cent sales tax in a way is so much more than the expenses it directly pays for,” Arminta Syed, transportation policy and initiatives manager the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), told KTAR News 92.3 FM recently. “It also brings in all of this additional revenue to the region because you’re able to use it as a match, and that really helps grant applications.”

For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation recently allocated $356.6 million for the US 60 (Grand Avenue)/35th Avenue/Indian School Road Grade Separation Project in Phoenix. It was the full amount requested by MAG and the largest award the Valley’s regional planning agency ever received.

Syed explained that having a dedicated source of local funding helped land the big federal contribution.

“One of the reasons I think that we did get this large grant award, and our full ask, is because we were able to show that, ‘Hey, we’re putting up the half-cent sales tax in matching funds toward the project,’” she said. “And that really helps push these different grant applications over the edge.”

Balin Overstolz McNair contributed to this report.

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Fate of half-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects is in Valley voters’ hands