Issues with the proposed Tacoma Streets Proposal
- Ian Armstrong
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Tacoma spends enormously. Our $2.3B city budget provides $10k in spending per person. The national average is $2.6k. The 10.5% Tacoma sales tax is the 2nd highest in the state. Our 1.086% property tax is the 3rd highest in the state. Despite these high taxes, we overspent and have a $15m deficit.
With this spending, you would think our infrastructure would be top notch. It is not. Our roads are in poor condition. WA state has the second worst roads in the nation. Tacoma has a $2.4B road repair backlog.
This measure allocates $200m. Unfortunately, that funding is not focused on repairing roads. 50% will be allocated to a poorly defined “safety” slush fund. Only 26% will be spent on “Better Neighborhood Streets.” While that 26% includes “paving,” it also includes traffic “calming” and “greenways.”
The measure lacks detail about which roads will be repaired and how much will be spent on paving versus other activities.
We absolutely need to repair our crumbling roads. This measure will spend money elsewhere. We suggest:
Vote no on this spendthrift measure, squandering money we do not have at a time the city is already running a deficit.
The city submits a detailed measure focused specifically on repaving roads. That should include costs and roads to be repaired.
Citizens must spend responsibly in tough economic times. We want our city to do the same.
Original author
Ben Lackey
Below is the original Streets Proposal Voter's Pamphlet entry in 2015.
This is given as an example as to what is likely to appear in the 2026 Voter's Pamphlet. When the Voter's Pamphlet for 2026 is released, the image will be added to this article.
