In a few weeks, voters in Escondido will decide whether to approve a one-cent sales tax increase that supporters are hoping will help close, or at least reduce, the city’s structural budget deficit.
Proponents say revenue from the tax could fund city services and community programs that have been downsized or cut to save money.
The measure, called Measure I, would increase the city’s sales tax rate from 7.75 percent (which is among the lowest in San Diego County) to 8.75. If approved, it’s projected to generate about $28 million in annual revenue.
That’s money the city could really use right now.
Escondido is facing an ongoing structural budget deficit that’s projected to reach $18 million each year over the next 20 years. That’s because the city’s current annual revenue isn’t keeping up with the city’s increasing expenses.
It’s led to some tough decisions by city officials to put off critical maintenance and infrastructure needs, eliminate vacant staff positions and make cuts to some city programs and services.
The measure has a lot of support: The San Diego County Taxpayers Association, the Escondido Firefighters Association, the Escondido Police Officers Association, the city’s mayor, a few council members and more have indicated their support for the measure.
Not everyone is on board: Critics of the measure say Escondido residents don’t need the added financial burden of higher taxes. They also argue that the city’s lower income residents would be hit hardest by increased taxes.
Police Officers Oppose Police Officer for Mayor
The San Diego Police Officers Association endorsed Mayor Todd Gloria in his re-election campaign, Thursday, saying his opponent, Larry Turner, who is a police officer, has made comments that are “confusing and harmful to our mission.”
“For any other candidate, we would have issued press releases in opposition weeks ago,” they said.
Turner told Voice in an interview in August that the city’s finances were in such bad shape that he would consider changing pension benefits for police and fire. He said at a recent debate that we reported those comments incorrectly and he would not, in fact, consider any changes like that.
We reproduced the full exchange in this post.
Related: We also broke the news here a couple weeks ago that a donor had given the Lincoln Club $1 million to support Turner – an amount that could help the challenger’s name-recognition among voters. After that, a few people insisted the money would not go to oppose Gloria. But this week, the Lincoln Club put another $350,000 into its new political action committee opposing Gloria and supporting Turner. That raises the total to $800,000.
Keep up with all our election coverage here.
Around the Empire
- California Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia said Imperial County’s plan for dispersing tax revenue from the nascent lithium mining industry isn’t set up to comply with the terms of state law. (KPBS)
- ABC 10 dropped in on Supervisor Nora Vargas with cameras rolling asking why she left the dais early on Tuesday’s meeting before a tied-vote on a gun ordinance, suggesting she left to attend the Padres playoff game. Vargas’ spokesperson later said she had a medical issue.
- A judge denied the Padres’ request to delay a hearing in a lawsuit filed by animal rights groups in an attempt to stop a rodeo from being held at Petco Park in January. The hearing is set for Oct. 25. (CBS 8)
- Seven endangered Ridgway’s rails, born in captivity at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, were returned to the wild in Ventura County. (Fox 5)
- Five former employees of San Diego’s national women’s football club, the Wave, sued the club alleging discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination among other things. The legal action stems from earlier claims by a former employee against the team’s president, Jill Ellis.
- San Diego hotel workers and Hilton agreed on a new contract including raises and improved working conditions, ending a 38-day strike. (Union-Tribune)
- Back in August, a story about how a group of migrants attempted to board a school bus in East County went viral. Posts on social media claimed the migrants were “hijacking” a school bus. But that never happened. Voice veteran Will Carless dug into what really went down for USA Today.
- An Irvine company listed for sale some office towers near Horton Plaza as it shifts its attention to the University City neighborhood instead. (Union-Tribune)
Correction: Yesterday’s Morning Report misidentified the author of a report on money in politics. The report was created by Maplight, a nonprofit research organization.
The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne, Scott Lewis and MacKenize Elmer. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
“Around the Empire”
please PLEASE stop using this word to describe our region.
an EMPIRE is “a group of nations or peoples *ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign* or government.”
sure, i know about the phrase Inland Empire for Riverside County. but in this coming election we are engaged in an existential battle for Democracy and against forces that would make an actual empire. using such a word, even as a quip, puts it into our collective psychology – our zeitgeist. this is NOT what VoSD oughta be doing.