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Our call — vote YES

The measure

Proposition 316 is a statute referred to the people by the Legislature as HCR 2021 (2025). It is on the November 3, 2026 general-election ballot. Because it is a legislative referral of a statute, the pamphlet prints the Proposition 105 notice for measures in this class: if approved, it cannot be changed in the future except by a three-fourths vote of each house of the Legislature where the change furthers the measure's purpose, by initiative, or by a new referral to the ballot.

The official title, as printed in the Arizona Secretary of State's 2026 Publicity Pamphlet, is: "AMENDING TITLE 42, CHAPTER 6, ARTICLE 1, SECTION 42-6015, ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES."

The pamphlet's descriptive title is: "RETROACTIVELY PROHIBITS LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FROM ADOPTING OR INCREASING A TAX ON GROCERIES WITHOUT VOTER APPROVAL AND SETS A MAXIMUM RATE OF 2%."

Current law, stated accurately first: the State of Arizona itself levies no tax on groceries. The taxes at issue are local — some Arizona cities impose their transaction privilege (sales) tax on food for home consumption, and others do not. Prop 316 governs only that local layer: whether a city may adopt or raise a grocery tax, and how high it may go.

Fiscal note: the pamphlet prints no official dollar estimate for this measure. The practical incidence, per the pamphlet notes, falls on the minority of Arizona cities that levy a food tax, since the state itself does not tax groceries.

What YES does

The pamphlet's own ballot language states that a "yes" vote shall have the effect of: "(1) retroactively prohibiting local governments from adopting or increasing a tax on groceries from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2027; and (2) after that time, prohibiting local governments from adopting or increasing a tax on groceries without voter approval and limiting any new or increased tax to a maximum rate of 2%."

The Legislative Council analysis supplies the working detail. The measure covers transaction privilege, sales, use, and franchise taxes on food and certain nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverages for home consumption. For a jurisdiction that already had such a tax on or before January 1, 2025: any increase needs voter approval and the rate is capped at 2% of the tax base — and if the existing rate is already at or above 2%, no increase is allowed at all. For a jurisdiction without one: adoption, and any later increase, needs voter approval, under the same 2% cap. Both are subject to the freeze window running to June 30, 2027, in which no adoption or increase takes effect.

What NO does

Per the pamphlet: "A 'no' vote shall have the effect of maintaining the current laws relating to local government taxation."

City councils keep the authority they have today: a city that taxes groceries may set or raise that tax by council action, at whatever rate its code allows, without asking the people who pay it at the checkout.

The math

Every number below is from the pamphlet or the Legislative Council analysis.

OUR CALL

Our call: YES.

The principle is as old as the Republic: no taxation without the taxed having a say. Food for home consumption is the least optional purchase a family makes — a tax on groceries falls on every household, and hardest on the ones with the least margin. If a city wants to reach into the grocery basket, it should have to ask the people carrying the basket, in an election, and accept their answer.

Prop 316 does exactly that, and only that. It does not ban grocery taxes. A city may still levy one — with voter approval, capped at 2%. It does not touch the state's finances, because the state levies no grocery tax. What it removes is one specific power: the power of a city council to adopt or raise a tax on food by its own vote alone. The two-year retroactive freeze simply prevents a rush to lock in increases ahead of the voters' verdict — and the retroactivity is printed on the ballot itself, in the open, for voters to weigh.

This is limited government in its most practical form: the closer a tax sits to a family's table, the closer its approval should sit to the family. Vote YES on Proposition 316.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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