Maricopa County voters to decide on public safety funding

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(The Center Square) - Voters will decide whether to extend a sales tax that helps fund law enforcement in Maricopa County.

Proposition 413 would continue the one-fifth-of-one-cent sales tax for 20 years. The fate of the tax, which pays for public safety, will be determined during the Nov. 3 general election.

Brandon Smith, a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputy chief, said the Arizona county receives about $300 million annually from the sales tax, with the majority going to the sheriff’s department.

Smith noted the sales tax is paid by everyone, including visitors to the county, which is home to Phoenix.

According to Smith, the sales tax helps Maricopa County pay for rebuilding jails, jail maintenance, inmate programming and the sheriff’s department staff.

Smith told The Center Square this week that several jails in the county need renovations. Lower Buckeye Jail and Fourth Avenue Jail, which were previously built with money earned from the sales tax, need plumbing work, he said.

The Towers Jail, which has been operating since the 1980s and is the county’s largest jail, needs to be replaced, Smith said. He added that funding from the sales tax would help finance the construction of a new jail.

The deputy chief also noted that the Estrella Jail, which houses female inmates, needs renovations, for which the sales tax would provide funding.

Maricopa County voters first passed the sales tax in 1998, then again in 2002. If Maricopa County voters do not pass this year's ballot measure, funding from the tax will run out in March 2027.

Without the sales tax extension, public safety in Maricopa County will suffer, according to the deputy chief.

The sheriff’s department would have to make cuts to services if the proposition is not passed, Smith told The Center Square.

He said the failure to pass the proposition could result in people being released from jail for low-level crimes and the closing of some jails.

Without these funds, Maricopa County may not be able to release people on probation as often because the money from the sales tax helps pay for the county’s probation program, the deputy chief said.

Another potential consequence of the proposition failing to pass is that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors would raise property taxes to cover the funding shortfall, Smith noted.

“That’s going to hurt a lot more than just one-fifth of 1%,” he added.

Thomas Galvin, a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said on social media that renewing the sales tax “is the most important ballot measure for Maricopa County voters.”

Little opposition has been expressed publicly against the tax, which has bipartisan support.