It's voter suppression to stall a vote on this transportation tax

As negotiations on extending Maricopa County's transportation tax slog along, a compelling argument for stalling conservative lawmakers is this:

Everyone is best served by a public vote next year.

Timing is of the essence. And not just because the half-cent sales tax to pay for transportation infrastructure expires at the end of 2025.

A delay on enabling legislation for the Proposition 400 extension unquestionably stands to disrupt everything from qualifying for federal matching funds to attracting investments to the region.

It also stands to facilitate what conservatives (and liberals) rail against: voter suppression.

The stalling tactic made sense last year, when Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed enabling legislation for an election on Proposition 400's extension.

That prevented Maricopa County from holding the election this year, also an off-cycle election year.

The tactic makes no sense now, unless the purpose is to mute the voice of voters by delaying a public vote until 2025.

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Lest anyone assert this is hyperbole, suppressed voter turnout is real.

Longtime Arizona Republic columnist Bob Robb, now an independent politics blogger, inveighed against Phoenix's use of special elections to raise taxes.

When Phoenix tacked onto the August 2015 mayor and council election a proposition to raise the city's transportation tax from 0.4% to 0.7%, it might as well have been a special election. It drew an underwhelming 21% turnout.

(In 2018, Phoenix partly saw the error of its ways and changed its elections for mayor and council to even years, significantly raising turnout. Special elections, however, including runoffs, are still held outside of that election schedule.)

It would be a big win for direct democracy to hold the Proposition 400 extension in 2024.

But that can happen only if the few intransigent state lawmakers act. Or, alternatively, if Senate President Warren Petersen ushers forward the enabling legislation for a full vote by the chamber.

They need only to look at the last time Maricopa County voted on Proposition 400 in 2004, when 78% of registered voters took part.

It is even more notable when one looks at the number of so-called undervotes — that is, voters who abstained from casting a "yes" or "no" vote on the transportation tax.

That year, there were eight statewide propositions on the ballot. For all but two of them, roughly 20% to 24% of the voters left those races blank — meaning they didn't know or care enough to say yea or nay.

Only about 7% of Maricopa County voters who cast a ballot didn't want a say on Proposition 400.

The few GOP lawmakers who are holding up the Proposition 400 enabling legislation may believe they're fighting for taxpayers against the boondoggle that is light rail. They have largely won already, exacting concessions that include no new transportation tax revenue goes to extending light rail.

If the public feels that the proposal is still problematic, they can declare so themselves at the ballot box.

True conservatives would abhor the thought of having a small fraction of the electorate make that determination.

They would do everything in their power to assure a public vote on the extension of Proposition 400 next November.

Reach Abe Kwok at [email protected]. On Twitter: @abekwok.