The Tacoma City Council is sending a leaner streets funding plan back to voters, betting that a slimmed down, ten-year package will fare better at the polls than last year’s failed pitch. On Tuesday the council voted to place a new measure on the Aug. 4 primary ballot as Proposition 1, aiming to refill a transportation funding stream that expired at the end of 2025. The proposal is framed as a bridge-style package focused on paving, safety projects and neighborhood connections, without the open-ended price tag that helped sink the previous effort.
What the council approved
The council adopted a resolution asking voters to sign off on two revenue moves: a 1.5 percentage-point increase in the gross earnings tax on natural gas, electric and phone utilities, and a $0.20 per $1,000 levy-lid lift in regular property taxes. The levy would run for ten years.
According to the City of Tacoma, the local levy is expected to bring in about $200 million. When combined with roughly $90 million in anticipated grants and $30 million in partnership funding, city officials say it could build an approximately $320 million transportation investment program.
How the dollars would be spent
The proposal splits local levy dollars into three main priorities:
- Better Neighborhood Streets at roughly $75 million
- Safer Streets for Everyone at roughly $85 million
- Improved Connections at roughly $40 million
Supporters argue that outside money could significantly stretch those figures. With grant leverage, they estimate spending could climb to about $85 million for Better Neighborhood Streets, $159 million for Safer Streets for Everyone and $76 million for Improved Connections. Those projections, along with the transportation department’s grant-leverage estimates, were reported by KIRO 7.
Why leaders retooled the ask
City leaders trimmed and refocused the package after voters rejected a larger Streets Initiative last spring. An advisory process that followed flagged the need for clearer priorities and more transparency about where the money would go and how progress would be tracked.
Reporting from The Urbanist details the April 2025 defeat and the political pressure it created for the council to come back with a narrower, more accountable plan instead of another all-or-nothing pitch.
What comes next for voters
The resolution asks the Pierce County Auditor to place Proposition 1 on the Aug. 4, 2026 Primary Election ballot. If voters approve the levy, the city would be required to use a data-driven, equity-focused framework to select specific projects, with the idea that the highest-need areas should rise to the top of the list.
The council’s resolution also spells out the projected household hit. The utility tax increase is expected to cost a typical household about $23.64 more per year. The property tax levy-lid lift would add around $101.52 annually for the average homeowner, according to the council’s estimates.
