(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents a coalition of property and business owners throughout Pinal County who have worked to bring new transportation infrastructure to the region.)
By Richard Dyer | YourValley
Reauthorizing a 20-year half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2017 and canceled by the Arizona Supreme Court will be on the Nov. 8 ballot for residents of Pinal County.
If approved, Proposition 469 would create an excise tax that would provide a projected $1.096 billion in transportation funding for the Pinal Regional Transportation Plan.
It includes $506.9 million for 36 miles of a four-lane North-South Corridor — also known as the Arizona Sonoran Parkway — proposed to be constructed from Apache Junction to I-10 east of Eloy, passing through the city of Coolidge and the town of Florence; and $65.2 million for a 4-mile extension of State Route 24 from Ironwood Drive to the North-South Corridor. Both are part of the Pinal Regional Transportation Authority Board plan for the funds, which can be read at pinalrta.org.
Previous tax struck down
Approved on Nov. 7, 2017, were Proposition 416, which was to create a network of new roads and freeways throughout Pinal County; and Proposition 417, which funded the projects through a half-cent increase in the sales tax.
Proposition 416 was approved 26,399-19,944 and Proposition 417 was approved 23,635-22,734, according to final numbers approved by the Pinal County Board of Supervisors.
Goldwater Institute represented a group of taxpayers and business owners in challenging the tax. The Arizona Supreme Court on March 8, 2022, ruled 4-3 that the taxing structure of the 2017 voter-approved half-cent sales tax was invalid because it improperly exempted transactions over $10,000.
