Are you willing to pay for better streets, Tacoma? Tax measure headed to ballot
Tacoma residents will get the chance to vote on a 10-year tax hike in August that would fund street repairs and safety improvements.
The ballot measure, if approved, would authorize a 1.5% increase in utility-earnings tax and an increase in property tax of $0.20 per $1,000 of assessed value. City officials said the utility-earnings tax would cost about $1.97 per month and the property tax would cost the average Tacoma home about $8.46 per month, raising $200 million over 10 years.
The City Council voted unanimously at its April 14 meeting to put the measure on the Aug. 4 ballot, which is also the primary election. The decision comes almost exactly one year after voters rejected a similar tax measure the city put on the ballot in April 2025.
The new measure is known as Proposition 1 or, as the city is calling it, “Connect Tacoma: Safe Streets and Sidewalks.” If approved, the city could leverage the estimated $200 million in revenue to acquire an additional $120 million in state and federal grants, according to the city.
The measure comes as several public agencies in and around Tacoma have sought to raise taxes or renew existing ones, and as local governments contend with budget deficits. The city of Tacoma has warned of a $15 million deficit in the 2027-2028 budget, Parks Tacoma is contending with a roughly $3 million deficit, and Tacoma Public Schools last year faced a $30 million deficit.
“We do not make light of these requests,” Mayor Anders Ibsen told The News Tribune this week. “It’s not lost on us that it’s a tough economy. At the same time, the cost of not having world-class infrastructure and not having more responsiveness to people’s safety concerns is far greater.”
Kyle Haugh, elections manager for the Pierce County Elections Office, told The News Tribune that the city will likely pay 10% of the county’s total election costs to put Prop. 1 on the ballot in August. He estimated the cost to be roughly $175,000 to $200,000.
Last year’s streets measure, called Streets Initiative II, came as the city’s 2015 Streets Initiative approached its expiration date in late 2025 and early 2026, according to city spokesperson Maria Lee. Streets Initiative II would have been a permanent measure and proposed a higher rate with a 2% utility-earnings tax and a $0.25 per $1,000 of assessed value property tax.
When last year’s measure failed, supporters said they weren’t surprised – given the possibility of tariffs at the time and rising inflation. City leaders were concerned about maintaining Tacoma’s infrastructure needs and said the city’s level of service would diminish without a street levy.
Since then, the city has surveyed Tacoma residents and done research to understand why the measure failed and what residents are looking for. That effort found that Tacoma residents were concerned about road safety and conditions in Tacoma and might be increasingly open to investing in streets this year, according to the city’s Public Works Department.
The measure that will appear on the ballot in August is identical to the 2015 measure – both proposed the same tax rate and both only for 10 years. The two diverge in what they would pay for, with 50% of the funding spent on street safety, 26% on improving the quality of neighborhood streets and 24% on improving connections – access to transit, schools and business.
Ibsen said the new streets measure will focus more on arterial roads while the 2015 measure focused more on residential streets.
“That’s in response to community concerns,” he said. “This is going to be a very safety-focused package.”
He said the city is looking to put the measure on the August ballot to allow enough time for “robust outreach” – in response to reports that the city did not do enough outreach about last year’s streets initiative proposal.
Ibsen said it’s too soon to say whether the city would try a third time to pass a streets initiative if Prop. 1 fails in August but said the city would seek to prioritize safety on the city’s streets.
“If this fails, then we’re going to do our best to carry on with the resources we have,” he said.
This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 6:39 PM.
