A coalition of labor and advocacy groups announced Friday they will try to get a proposed countywide half-cent sales tax increase on the November 2026 ballot.
If approved, the measure would raise a projected $360 million annually for yet-to-be-specified causes including public safety, health care, solutions to the Tijuana sewage crisis and child care.
The citizens group behind the hoped-for ballot measure includes the county’s largest labor union Service Employees International Union Local 221, advocacy group Children First San Diego, Cal Fire Local 2881 County Firefighters and the San Diego Foundation.
Their proposal comes as the county government faces a projected $300 million annual hit to its budget from federal cuts. The county’s current sales tax rate is 7.75 percent.
“San Diegans are facing a wave of threats that Washington, D.C. is either ignoring or making worse — from toxic cross-border sewage that’s sickening entire communities to unmet public safety needs to hundreds of thousands of residents at risk of losing their health care,” the coalition wrote in a Friday statement. “We must act to protect our community and that’s why our coalition is advancing a measure for the 2026 ballot to give San Diego County a chance to choose a safer, healthier, more secure future — and we invite the community to join us in this fight.”
The group expects to start collecting signatures next month.
San Francisco-based election law attorney Jim Sutton said the coalition will need to collect 102,923 valid signatures to get on next November’s ballot and will want to gather at least 140,000 to ensure they can qualify.
The citizen-backed effort is – at least for now – separate from the subcommittee work that county Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer and Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe are queuing up to hash out ways the county might bring in more revenue. The county is set to hire and pay consultants up to $500,000 as part of that effort to conduct polling and research on potential measures to raise taxes and other possible ways to increase county revenues.
Whatever happens next, the citizens group behind the countywide proposal is already facing competition – and an uphill battle.
A separate coalition that includes Laborers Local Union 89, Carpenters Union Local 619, and Rebuild SoCal recently announced they plan to proceed with a one-cent sales tax proposal in the city of San Diego that could raise $400 million annually to shield the city from public safety cuts, upgrade water, road and flood prevention infrastructure and more.
The city and county groups each recently circulated polls testing voters’ potential support for separate city and county measures. Their campaigns follow the November 2024 demise of Measures E and G, separate city and countywide sales-tax proposals.
Politicos are skeptical voters will support two sales-tax hikes in 2026, especially as residents struggle with the surging cost of everything from food to power.
Both sales-tax measures could also face more skepticism as City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera continues his push for a June 2026 proposal to tax vacation rentals and second homes.
San Diegans are facing a wave of threats of more taxes and fees while they run on affordability. They want to raid the reserve fund and spend it. It’s time to cut the fat.
Find out how this single mom was able to earn $6k/monthly for working (gt222) at her home for a few hours a day and how you can do it yourself ..
continuously…. Teb on my profile name
The argument for the tax increase, during a recession, and with city fees rising left and right (garbage and parking to name just two), seems to be, “We need more money, we will spend it on good things, but we won’t commit to what they will be. You can trust us.”
No. . . . I don’t think so. You past actions have demonstrated that you are NOT trust worthy in spending our money wisely.
IF this gets on the ballot, it should not, I will vote “NO”, I urge you to do the same.
When Labor bankrolls and does the legwork on a tax increase, you can bet it’s really about higher wages plus job protections (because in the absence of additional funding, higher labor costs translates into fewer employees). And Labor and the city/county hire consultants to conduct surveys to determine what voters might be willing to pay for, use those results to market the tax increase, and then hope no reads the fine print in the ballot measure that actually allows them to spend the money on whatever they want. (They can also utilize a “shell game,” like the new trash disposal fee in the City of San Diego. By shifting the City’s cost of trash disposal into a separate fund, it “unencumbers” the $82+ million in the General Fund that was previously spent on that service. Those fund can then be shifted towards other costs, like the 20% employee raises that are a contributing factor in the City’s current budget woes.)
Prevailing union wages for laborers and carpenters are $52 an hour not counting benefits which moves it up to $80 an hour roughly. I think they’re going to need a new state bargaining agreement contract soon as well.
That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! It all points to raising the funds to help safe mortgage rates, enter into a safer climate climate where they can opt out on better options and while reducing overall greenhouse emissions by having everyone pitch in their 2 1/2 cents or $00.2 while sustaining the other mortgage in a completely appropriate manner and getting a loan to get another 2 1/2 cents or 10 ÷ .2 and it becomes a lot more transparent with less fog on how this all transforms the playing field. I just don’t get why people don’t understand this?
Because, it’s never enough.