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Our call — vote NO
The measure
Proposition 424 is on the November 3, 2026 general-election ballot in Tempe, placed there by the Tempe City Council's Resolution No. R2026.48 (adopted May 14, 2026), ordering a special election held in conjunction with the statewide general election — per the City Clerk's official election memorandum of July 10, 2026.
The measure asks, in the ballot language quoted in Tempe's local press from the official text: "Effective January 1, 2027, shall a new five-tenths of one percent (0.5%) transaction privilege (sales) tax and use tax, except for the privilege (sales) tax on food for home consumption, be levied and allocated as follows? 1) three-tenths of one percent (0.3%) to be designated to enhance public safety and strengthen the overall security of Tempe's parks and neighborhoods, including funding for essential public safety infrastructure, operations, and services for police, fire, emergency operations, safety and security programs, and crime prevention through environmental design; 2) one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) to be designated for the improvement and operation of Tempe's public transit system and multimodal projects, including pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure; and 3) one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) to be designated to expand and strengthen early childhood care and preschool education…"
The City Clerk's memorandum describes the preschool allocation (Tempe PRE) as broadening access "first to qualified Tempe residents, followed by teachers working in Tempe school districts, then to employees of the City of Tempe, and finally to nonresidents who are employed by Tempe-based businesses."
The city's stated reason for asking, per its election materials: Tempe lost approximately $25 million in annual funding from state-shared revenues. Note what the money funds, in the measure's own words: operations and services — ongoing spending, not only buildings.
Duration: the ballot language and the city's official memorandum print no expiration date, no sunset, and no renewal vote. Reporting on the measure (azcentral) describes it accordingly, as a permanent increase. That absence is the central fact of this measure, and it is printed here in bold because a voter skimming the ballot will not find a term stated anywhere on it.
What YES does
A YES vote authorizes the new 0.5% transaction privilege (sales) tax and use tax, effective January 1, 2027, allocated 0.3% to public safety, 0.1% to transit and multimodal projects, and 0.1% to early childhood care and preschool — with the tax on food for home consumption excepted. Tempe's city sales-tax rate rises from 1.8% to 2.3%. No end date is provided for in the measure.
What NO does
Per the City Clerk's memorandum: "If Proposition 424 is not approved, the City's current transaction privilege (sales) tax rate of 1.8% will remain in effect."
Nothing is repealed and nothing is cut by the vote itself; the new tax simply is not levied, and the city budgets within the existing rate.
The math
- Rate: +0.5 percentage points — city rate 1.8% → 2.3%, a roughly 28% increase in the city's own sales-tax rate. In pocket terms, as the measure's supporters themselves put it: 5 cents on every $10 of taxable purchases, 50 cents on every $100.
- Exempt: food for home consumption is excepted from the new tax.
- Projected revenue: the city estimates approximately $50 million per year (city estimate, as reported by azcentral from the city's deputy city manager and chief financial officer). Split by the measure's own allocation: about $30 million a year to public safety (0.3 of the 0.5), about $10 million to transit/multimodal (0.1), and about $10 million to preschool (0.1).
- Duration: none printed. No sunset, no expiration, no re-vote. At the city's own ~$50 million-a-year estimate, a permanent tax is not a $50 million decision; it is $50 million a year, every year, indefinitely — $500 million across the first decade alone, at a flat estimate, with no date on which Tempe voters are automatically asked again.
- Context figure, attributed: the city cites roughly $25 million a year in lost state-shared revenue as the gap behind the request — about half the ~$50 million a year the tax is estimated to raise.
OUR CALL
Our call: NO.
Our rule for sales taxes is printed in advance and applied the same way to every city: a sales-tax increase earns a YES only when the purpose is a core function and the tax sunsets, so voters re-decide it on evidence. Proposition 424 fails the second half of that test completely, and the failure is not a technicality. The ballot language contains no expiration date. The city's own memorandum contains no expiration date. This is a permanent increase in Tempe's sales-tax rate — 1.8% to 2.3% — adopted once, collected forever, funding ongoing operations and services rather than a defined project with an end.
The purposes are mixed as well as permanent. Public safety is a core function, and it is the largest share — but three-tenths is not the whole tax: one-tenth funds transit operations and one-tenth expands a city preschool program, each a standing operating commitment that will defend its own budget line long after this election's arguments are forgotten, all of it unlocked by a single yes/no question that never returns to the ballot.
None of this denies Tempe's stated problem: the city says it lost roughly $25 million a year in state-shared revenue, and cities do have to balance budgets. But a permanent tax is the one answer that requires no future discipline. If Tempe's case is as strong as its officials say, it can survive being made again: bring voters a tax with a term — five or ten years, a printed sunset, and a renewal vote at which the city shows what the money bought. That measure would get a fair hearing under our criteria. A permanent one does not.
Vote NO on Proposition 424.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.
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Sources
- City of Tempe, City Clerk memorandum, "November 3, 2026 Sales Tax Special Election Update" (July 10, 2026) — Resolution No. R2026.48; the 0.5% tax and its 0.3/0.1/0.1 allocation; the food-for-home-consumption exception; the January 1, 2027 effective date; the 1.8% rate remaining if the measure fails; and the absence of any stated expiration — https://www.tempe.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/118352/639192976994870000
- City of Tempe sales-tax election materials (official election flyer) — the city's statement that it lost approximately $25 million in annual funding from state-shared revenues — https://www.tempe.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/118182/639172265354670000
- Ballot language as quoted in Tempe News reporting on the official ballot text; azcentral reporting on the measure (the 1.8% → 2.3% rate change, the city's ~$50 million annual revenue estimate and its $30M/$10M/$10M split, and the description of the increase as permanent) — https://www.tempenews.com/news/sales-tax-hike-adds-heat-to-tempe-ballot/article_ec90a13e-5c34-45a9-a3cc-e62f52ba4504.html and https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/09/17/tempe-voters-consider-half-cent-sales-tax-to-fill-24m-budget-deficit/91794086007/
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.