TACOMA, Wash. — As the adage goes, if at first you don’t succeed, ask the voters again. That’s the perspective the Tacoma City Council is taking for funding roads across the city.
The new proposal, which the council passed to send to the August 4, 2026 ballot, continues taxes passed in 2015, a $0.20/ $1,000 of assessed value and a 1.5% utility earnings tax.
It would be in place for ten years, similar to the 2015 measure that expired at the end of 2025.
In April 2025, voters turned down a $900 Million dollar funding package, that included providing more funding for the Transportation Benefit District.
It would have been funded by a $0.25/$1,000 in assessed value property tax and a 2% utility earnings tax. The measure did not have an expiration date.
“Voters have consistently told us they wanna feel safer, they want more jobs, they want greater connectivity in their neighborhoods, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Tacoma Mayor Anders Ibsen said.
After the April 2025 vote failed, a levy advisory board was created as part of a larger effort to understand what voters would want to see, including more transparency and a need for accountability, according to Kurtis Kingsolver.
The proposal, which will be Proposition 1 on the August ballot, will silo funding into three buckets:
- Better Neighborhood Streets, $75 Million
- Safer Streets for Everyone, $85 Million
- Improved Connections, $40 Million
The focus is on arterials, calming traffic for safer streets, and improving connections between neighborhoods.
“It’s making sure that there’s less drag racing and more bicycle lanes, more focus on kids getting to their schools and parks more safely and being responsive to what our neighborhoods want more of,” Ibsen said.
The example of the Safer Streets for Everyone can be seen on 64th Street, moving east and west through Tacoma. It’s one lane in each direction that Loris Fabyunkey says is much more than just residential traffic.
“It’s a really busy street. There are a lot of big gravel trucks that come through.” Fabyunkey says.
Fabyunkey lives on the east side of Portland Avenue on 64th Street, the side of the street that has yet to be improved. Improvements were made last year, adding sidewalks and bike lanes to a street that was had gravel separating yards and homes from the high-traffic street.
“It didn’t feel safe. I mean, either for my car or myself,” Valerie Marshall said, a crossing guard for the elementary students, “Since they’ve put in the new addition, I feel like it’s a lot safer.”
Kingsolver estimates, on the low end, his department would be able to secure $120 Million in grants to add to the $200 Million generated by Proposition 1.
He says projects that prioritize road safety, pedestrians, and bike lanes, are score highly when applying for grants. He points to the department’s track record with recent funding.
“Our goal was $90 million in grant funds. And we’ve turned $30 million into $144 million. We actually exceeded that.” Kingsolver said.
At a minimum, he estimates this would be the grant funding he could secure for the different project priorities around Tacoma:
- Better Neighborhood Streets, $75 Million, $10 Million in additional grants
- Safer Streets for Everyone, $85 Million, $74 Million in additional grants
- Improved Connections, $40 Million, $36 Million in additional grants.
If there’s a trade-off from the larger package, it would be repaving neighborhood streets in an effort to improve arterials. In Kingsolver’s eyes, there’s always more work to be done.
“If we were going to try to do everything we could do, it’d be in the billions of dollars,” he said.
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