It’s talked about like a deity, a force of nature that fixes the roads, secures the streets, fills the potholes, builds trails, and inspires visions — more roundabouts, more trails, more of the same. It laid 2,000 tons of pavement and 8,000 tons of asphalt — couldn’t have been done without it — and it filled the police department’s roster.

The vague it here is, of course, money, but the source of it is a general-purpose 0.75% sales tax that kicked in in 2009 and will end in 2029, unless Arcata voters decide to keep it in perpetuity. City Hall really wants them to.

The tax, called Measure G, after the measure that created it, passed in 2008. At the time of its passage, Arcata estimated it had about $15 million worth of road work to complete, spread out over 64 miles of roadway, and its police department was understaffed by four officers. (Alex Stillman, the doyenne of the Arcata City Council, also noted at a meeting last week that some people had told her that Arcata’s roads reminded them of a third world country’s.) It passed with 63% of the vote.

The measure’s drafters included a provision that would dissolve it in March 2029, but it proved immensely valuable for the city’s coffers. During its existence, it’s generated $39 million dollars for the city; it now averages about $2.8 million every year. The proceeds have been almost evenly split between road improvements ($21 million) and public safety ($17.5 million, much of which went towards hiring four police officers and paying their salaries for the last 17 years.) None of the proceeds are sent to the state; essentials, like groceries and rent, are untaxed.

City hall also often uses that money to get more of it, leveraging the Measure G funds to secure grant funding. The city promises to spend x amount on a project; enticed, the moneyed donor promises Arcata more matching funds. City Engineer Netra Khatri estimated that tactic had won the city $35 million in grant funding over the last 10 years alone. It would have been very difficult without the Measure G funding.

The pitch, proffered to the voters of Arcata on their ballots this election cycle, asks them to renew the tax, at the same 0.75% rate, forever. It wouldn’t have a sunset date; it could only be repealed by a majority vote. It’ll also only require a simple majority to pass.

Arcata’s sales tax is 10.25%, which is a combination of state sales taxes, a county sales tax, and another, different 0.75% city sales tax passed in 2024. It’s tied for the 7th highest sales tax in the state, although every 0.25% increment in the amount of sales tax is shared by dozens of cities. (73 cities have a higher sales tax than Arcata; the highest is Lancaster, in Los Angeles County, at 11.75%.)

City leaders strongly feel that the renewal of Measure G is in the community’s best interest. Khatri said that the city barely has enough money to continue paving the roads as it is, and without Measure G, the amount of paving the city does could drastically decrease. The city’s street budget in 2026 was $7 million, $2.8 of which came from Measure G. The list of projects accomplished with Measure G funding stretches to more than a dozen items. A letter signed by several Arcata residents, sent to the county’s office of elections, points out many of them: the Humboldt Bay Trail, the Annie and Mary Trail, several traffic calming measures, the roundabout on Old Arcata Road. The elections office doesn’t list any anti-Measure G arguments.

“Without renewal, Arcata would lose an important source of local revenue that helps maintain public safety and quality of life that residents, businesses, students, and visitors expect,” they wrote.

A poll, commissioned by Arcata in February, indicated that 31% of the respondents would “definitely” vote to renew the tax. Another 25% said they’d “probably” support it, and the same amount said they’d support it only if it was used for transportation projects. Almost 20% said they’d be against it if it was used to hire more police officers.

“I think it’s really important for us to remember how good this has been for us and how much it means for us for the future,” Stillman said at a meeting last week, “and I would really hope that everyone supports it.”