Proposition 104 – Public Transportation

It is almost voting time everyone! Are you ready? In fact some Phoenix household may have already received their early ballots and started sweating out their tough decisions. Every voter’s opinion is important and unique, but voting is also a huge responsibility. The best thing a voter can do to prepare for this responsibility is to educate themselves aboutthe topics on which they will be voting. So what are the hard facts regarding Proposition 104?

Proposition 104 proposes an expansion to Phoenix’s public transportation system. This expansion comes with a price tag – 31.5 billion dollars to be precise. That is a large amount of money, so where exactly is all that that money going to come from? Well it is not going to appear quickly. It is going to be gathered slowly through taxes over the course of 35 years. Is that burden of voter responsibility feeling a little heavier now? Your vote could impact the City of Phoenix for 35 years!

The current rate of city tax is 2.0%. This tax rate is set to last through 2020 after which it will revert back to 1.6%. Proposition 104 will gather its $31.5 billion by increasing the City of Phoenix tax rate by 0.3%. This increase would bring the total rate of city tax up to 2.3%.

Of this $31.5 billion dollars, $6.66 billion will be committed directly to the development of the light rail. This would expand the light rail by 41.2 miles at a cost of approximately $161,650,485/mile.

Armed with this information, each individual voter can start to think about their decision. Consider the pros and cons of the proposition. Think about the long-term and short-term effects of the proposition and decide if you think Prop 104 is right for Phoenix.