Having thought about revenue issues these past eight months, these are my thoughts — and represent my views alone — on the sales tax discussion.
1. It is inherently the most fair and stable as it spreads the burden throughout the entire community. Residents of all income categories pay in accordance with their retail expenditures, all businesses pay for their purchases, and tourists contribute through their spending when they visit our community.
2. While it is true the sales tax is somewhat regressive among the poorest residents, in California the regressive effect found in other states is vastly minimized because there is no tax on services, housing, groceries or medicine.
3. It would provide enough revenue to enable San Diego to restore service levels to the community, afford new fire equipment and fire stations, provide more affordable housing and other truly necessary investments. Coupled with increased efficiencies in how the city does business, this would move our city past an era of looking back and enable us to rebuild and improve for the future.
— Bob Nelson