Taxpayers OPPOSES County of San Diego Half-Cent Sales Tax

The San Diego County Taxpayers Association OPPOSES the County’s measure as it contains no sunset clause, no year-over-year performance targets that would allow citizens to measure and track outcomes and creates an oversight body that appears to intentionally exclude any member from a taxpayer advocacy group. Additionally, a permanent new revenue stream is being layered onto a fiscal structure SD Taxpayers has already identified as unsustainable on its current path. Sustaining an unreformed cost trajectory with a new permanent tax does not demonstrate a commitment to long-term fiscal discipline that SD Taxpayers expects from local agencies. Finally, uncertainty surrounding whether the passage of this tax increase would automatically reopen one or more County labor contracts makes it difficult for voters to ascertain exactly how the new money would be spent.