The city that votes on itself
Most cities leave taxes, borrowing and land-use plans to the council. Scottsdale’s voters have a hand on all three, some by choice and some because Arizona law demands it. The Arizona constitution of 1912 reserved the initiative and referendum for city voters, and the city charter adopts those state rules. Add the votes state law requires on taxes, bonds and plans, and Scottsdale ends up back at the ballot box on its own business every few years.
The four levers
The initiative. Residents draft a city law or a charter amendment, gather valid signatures from Scottsdale voters (the city clerk listed 25,887 as of 2026), and the measure goes on the ballot whether the council likes it or not. Prop 420 in 2018 was an initiative.
The referendum. Residents can force a council decision to a public vote by filing petitions within 30 days of the council action, with about 15,400 valid signatures as of 2026. Filing a qualified referendum suspends the ordinance until the election.
Required votes. The city treats any sales tax increase or extension as needing voter approval, and state law requires a vote on general obligation bonds (the kind repaid from property taxes), charter amendments and a new General Plan. So does any permanent raise in the state-imposed spending limit, a 1980 formula that caps what Arizona cities may spend each year.
Referrals. The council can also send a question to voters on its own, which is how most tax and bond measures reach the ballot.
Why it matters
The results are all over the map of the city. The McDowell Sonoran Preserve exists because voters taxed themselves to buy it, the 2019 bond built parks and fire stations, and the Greenbelt is being rebuilt with a 2024 tax. The budget guide shows how those votes add up to the city’s sales tax rate.
The landmark votes
1995 and 2004: buying the mountains. On May 23, 1995, voters approved a 0.2% sales tax for thirty years to buy Preserve land. On May 18, 2004 they added a second 0.15% tax and authorized bonds against it so the city could buy before land prices ran away; the same ballot carried the 0.10% public-safety tax still on the books. The Preserve guide tells the full story.
2018: Prop 420. Opposition to a Desert Discovery Center at the Gateway Trailhead became a citizen initiative that amended the charter: no non-preservation use of Preserve land without a public vote. It passed with about 71%. The same ballot added a 0.10% transportation sales tax for ten years.
2019: the bond. Three questions worth about $319 million for 58 projects (parks and senior centers, community spaces and infrastructure, public safety and technology) all passed with roughly 68 to 73 percent. A citizens’ oversight committee still tracks the program.
2021: General Plan 2035. Arizona’s Growing Smarter laws make cities like Scottsdale take a new General Plan to the voters. Prop 463 ratified General Plan 2035 on November 2, 2021, with about 54%, a closer margin than the tax votes. The General Plan guide explains what it controls.
2024: Props 490 and 491. Prop 490 replaced the expiring 1995 Preserve tax with a 0.15% tax for parks, WestWorld, Preserve upkeep and park safety, passing with about 61%. Prop 491 raised the city’s spending limit through a permanent base adjustment, the third after 1998 and 2006, with about 68%.
The Axon referendum and the limits of local power
The referendum’s strongest test came in the 2020s. In 2024 the council approved rezoning for Axon’s expanded headquarters campus near the Loop 101, including nearly 2,000 apartments and a hotel. Opponents argued the housing broke faith with the area’s plans; supporters argued the city should keep a homegrown employer. Residents gathered more than 20,000 signatures, and the rezoning was headed for the 2026 ballot, as the 2024 and 2025 pages recount.
It never got there. In April 2025 the legislature passed SB 1543, and Governor Katie Hobbs signed it despite a letter from Mayor Lisa Borowsky urging a veto. The law lets qualifying corporate headquarters projects include housing on industrially zoned land, which cancelled the scheduled vote. In November 2025 a divided council approved a revised agreement with Axon that cut the housing to 600 apartments and 600 condos over two phases; opponents took the fight to court. However one reads the merits, the episode showed that the referendum is a local power the state can override, the theme of the preemption guide.
Why the habit runs so deep
Scottsdale’s reliance on the ballot has a history. The Preserve campaign of the 1990s taught a generation of activists that the voters, not the council, were the Preserve’s real owners, and Prop 420 wrote that belief into the charter. The same electorate has proven hard to take for granted, and its margins vary with the subject: General Plan 2035 passed by a much thinner margin than the 2019 bonds, a reminder that growth plans divide the city in a way parks and fire stations do not.
Mechanics worth knowing
City measures appear on the same ballots as state and county races, run by Maricopa County elections. Only Scottsdale voters may sign city petitions, the clerk verifies signatures before anything is certified, and courts regularly hear challenges to petition wording and ballot descriptions. The signature thresholds are recalculated from turnout, so any campaign should confirm the current numbers with the city clerk before printing a single petition.