Voters countywide will decide in November whether to approve a half-cent sales tax hike to fund healthcare, yet-to-be-specified Tijuana River sewage solutions, child care and public safety.
The county Registrar of Voters has confirmed that the coalition behind the San Diego County Health & Safety Act submitted enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
In a Wednesday announcement, the labor and advocacy coalition signaled it will focus on federal cuts to make the case to voters for the sales tax hike projected to pull in $360 million annually.
“This November, San Diego County voters have the power to protect San Diego from everything Washington is trying to take away,” coalition spokesperson Courtney Baltiyskyy wrote in a statement. “More than 121,000 San Diegans signed this petition because they know our health, safety and clean water are on the line.”
Where the money would go: If approved, the initiative would direct up to 60 percent of new tax dollars to child care and health services for children, health care for uninsured or underinsured people, food aid and other health care causes. Nearly 23 percent would go toward yet-to-be-detailed efforts to combat the Tijuana sewage crisis and nearly 18 percent to public safety services, wildfire prevention and crisis response.
A tough sell: The coalition will face an electorate already reeling from other rising costs and skeptical about local governments. A poll obtained by Voice of San Diego last year showed just how skeptical city of San Diego residents were: 57 percent of the 776 city voters polled said they thought the county was on the wrong track.
Encinitas Bumps Up Development Impact Fees
Encinitas will now require housing developers to pay 200 to 500 percent more in development impact fees when building single and multi-family housing projects.
Development impact fees are one-time fees developers pay to local governments when building housing projects to fund things like park development, roadway improvements and traffic mitigation in the surrounding community.
Starting July 20, the city is raising its fees for future housing developments by 200 to 500 percent. The developers of an average, 1,736-square-foot home in Encinitas will now owe $47,827 in impact fees, up from the old figure of $15,843, according to the staff report.
Officials at the Building Industry Association are criticizing the city for raising prices on developers who are already facing extremely high costs just to build.
Related: Around this time last year, our Tigist Layne asked Encinitas Mayor Bruce Ehlers what he thought of the amount of development impact fees the city brings in yearly – at the time, staff were predicting the city would bring in almost $15 million in development impact fees by the end of the current fiscal year (June 30).
“It’s not enough,” Ehlers said. “For example, let’s say we wanted to widen one side of the road on Santa Fe Drive to accommodate for increased traffic – that alone would probably cost around $5 million. It’s not enough.”
Well, it looks like the rest of the City Council agreed with him.
Ehlers also previously told Layne the state should be funding its own housing mandates by subsidizing things like parking garages, street maintenance, traffic mitigation and more. You can read that story here.
The Learning Curve: Union Aims to be Kingmaker in State Supe Race
On paper, longtime San Diego Unified School District Trustee Richard Barrera appears to be lagging his opponents in the race to become California’s next State Superintendent of Schools.
But as our education reporter, Jakob McWhinney, reports, Barrera’s lackluster fundraising results might not matter in the little-noticed but consequential race.
That’s because Barrera has the backing of the powerful California Teachers Association, which often plays a decisive role in statewide education races.
Three of Barrera’s competitors have outraised him, some by a lot. But already a CTA independent expenditure committee supporting Barrera has blown past those totals, dropping $5 million into the race with more expected to come.
“We are planning to spend as much as it takes for him to win,” one union rep told McWhinney.
It’s a wide open race, with no candidate showing a decisive lead in polling. Can CTA’s financial muscle secure another win? We’ll know on June 2.
In Other News
- Authorities on Friday arrested a top-ranking San Diego County health official for allegedly killing a 27-year-old woman in a hit-and-run car crash. Health and Human Services Deputy Director Assmaa Elyyat faces one count each of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run after allegedly hitting the victim at a bus stop. (Union-Tribune)
- It all started with a tap on the shoulder. inewsource went behind the scenes to show how a deal came together to roll back San Diego trash fees and eliminate paid parking in Balboa Park.
- Twelve San Diego Fire Department firefighters earned more than $200,000 in overtime last year, according to an investigation by Times of San Diego. City officials said the high overtime amounts are a result of salary increases and persistent understaffing.
- Officials at a Chula Vista high school repeatedly expressed fears in recent years that one of their students was showing a disturbing affinity for mass violence. The student, Caleb Vazquez, was one of two teens suspected in this month’s shooting at a San Diego mosque that killed three people. (Union-Tribune)
- Tourists and commuters soon will have another way to travel from Chula Vista to downtown San Diego. Starting June 1, Flagship Cruises will offer daily ferry service from the Chula Vista waterfront to San Diego’s Fifth Avenue Landing. The 45-minute trip is expected to cost $15 one way.
- The behavior of one of the suspects in the Islamic Center shooting had raised concerns among school and law enforcement officials last year. (Union-Tribune) Related: We updated yesterday’s Morning Report to clarify that when the police department’s license plate reader system got a hit on the suspects’ vehicle, they sent officers to the Mission Valley area. Here’s a timeline.
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt, Tigist Layne and Jim Hinch. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.