Half-cent sales tax measure qualifies for San Diego County ballot
SAN DIEGO — A measure to increase sales taxes by half a cent to fund countywide transit projects has qualified for the November ballot, according to the Registrar of Voters office.
The ballot initiative was launched last year by a coalition of labor leaders and climate activists, called Let’s Go! San Diego, to support transit and road plans by the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG.
In a letter to proponents dated Jan. 3 and obtained by FOX 5 Friday, the county Registrar of Voters said a total of 172,916 signatures were submitted to the Registrar of Voters with a projected 127,249 that are considered valid — about 10% above what is required for qualification.
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“After more than two years of organizing, Environmental Health Coalition, transit riders, and community advocates are proud the transit measure will be on the 2024 ballot,” Carolina Martinez, a climate justice director with the Let’s Go! coalition, said in a release Friday.
“Currently, 70% of jobs are not reachable by public transit,” she continued. “This forces San Diegans into congested streets and highways which are leading contributors to climate change and air pollution in the San Diego region. By increasing service, frequency, and access, the measure will help build our economy, clean our air, and achieve our climate goals.”
With the certification of the initiative, the county says registered voters in the county will be able to vote on it as part of the the Nov. 7 ballot.
This comes a year after a previous attempt by the same coalition of groups to put the proposed sales tax increase on the ballot, which failed to garner enough signatures to qualify, with only 94,787 verified by the registrar at the time.
The measure’s failure to make it on the ballot posed a significant obstacle for the regional planning agency in funding its $160 billion long-term plan for transit projects in the coming decades.
This includes projects to connect the San Diego International Airport to public transit, the creation of a new Purple Line to connect the South Bay to Sorrento Mesa, and the realignment of county tracks in the train corridor connecting San Diego to Los Angeles.
As the Voice of San Diego reported last year, the outline, which was approved by the SANDAG board in 2021, assumed that county voters would approve a handful of tax increases — like the now-defunct milage fee — to generate over $20 billion towards the plan.
The initial citizens initiative for the half-cent increase was also brought forward to help fund projects included in the outline.
However, this move drew backlash from some conservatives on the planning agency’s board, led by Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, as the citizens initiative would take a simple majority of voters to approve as opposed to the two-thirds required for a SANDAG-sponsored one.
Bailey revoiced some of these concerns in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Thursday, criticizing SANDAG for circumventing “the majority of board members and the law.”
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“When government relies on special interests, including labor groups or business or otherwise, to circumvent the law, taxpayers always lose,” he continued.
FOX 5 has reached out to SANDAG for comment and is awaiting a response.
Voters have previously approved a half-cent sales tax, called the TransNet program, to fund SANDAG projects in 2004. According to the 2021 regional plan, this tax is expected to generate about $11.1 billion for transportation improvements through 2050.
However, a similar measure sponsored by SANDAG to increase this sales tax by another half-cent in 2016 fell short of the two-thirds threshold, with only 58% of county voters supporting it.
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