Permanent half-cent county sales tax leads 52% to 48% as count continues

San Diego County's sales tax would rise by half a cent with no end date under Measure B, which held a lead of 33,464 votes in the Registrar of Voters' Nov. 6 unofficial update.

Measure B had 435,487 yes votes, or 52.00%, to 402,023 no votes, or 48.00%, in the update the registrar posted at 5:46 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6. The registrar projected about 390,000 ballots were still outstanding countywide and scheduled its next update for Nov. 9 by 6 p.m. The results are unofficial and counting continues. The registrar had not certified the race.

The measure needs a simple majority, 50% plus one, to pass, according to the county sample ballot. Opponents would need to win roughly 54% of the remaining votes on the measure to overturn the lead, based on the share of counted ballots that included a vote on Measure B.

Backers declared victory after the Nov. 5 tally. "Big changes don't happen because we wait for someone else to act. They happen when people come together and are willing to take on tough fights," Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said, according to NBC 7 San Diego. "Our firefighters, health care workers and community leaders stepped forward, organized and called on us to build a better future. San Diegans answered that call."

The tax would add 0.5% to the rate in every city and in unincorporated areas. Under state tax tables effective Oct. 1, the rate in the city of San Diego, the unincorporated county and Santee is 7.75%, which would become 8.25%. Chula Vista's 8.75% rate would become 9.25%.

The County Counsel's impartial analysis estimates the tax would raise $400 million to $450 million a year and says it "would remain in effect until repealed by voters."

The ordinance text caps spending in four categories. Up to 60%, roughly $240 million to $270 million a year, would go to health care, nutrition assistance and child care. Up to 22.5%, roughly $90 million to $101 million, would go to the Tijuana River sewage crisis. Another 17.5% would fund public safety and wildfire prevention, with at least 8% each for county fire and for law enforcement. Administration is capped at 1.5%.

The tax would not take effect right away. The ordinance sets the start date as the first day of the first calendar quarter beginning more than 110 days after adoption, and requires the county to contract with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to collect it. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the surcharge would hit tax rolls April 1.

Mark Kersey, president and CEO of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, which signed the ballot argument against the measure, repeated his objections as the lead held. "My concern now with this local funding source available is that Washington looks at it and just says hey we don't need to give San Diego any more money," Kersey said in remarks the association posted Nov. 6. "What do you do if the priorities of today are not the same priorities two, five, ten years from now?"

The ballot argument against Measure B said the tax would raise the average household's taxes "by hundreds of dollars every year". Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, called it "a costly and unfair sales tax hike" earlier this year. Newsline did not find post-election statements from DeMaio or Supervisor Jim Desmond on Measure B.

Measure A, the county charter rewrite placed on the ballot by a 3-2 board vote, led by a nearly identical margin: 424,548 yes votes, or 52.07%, to 390,824 no votes, or 47.93%.

The charter changes would raise the supervisors' term limit from two four-year terms to three, a 12-year maximum, with prior service counting toward the cap. They would also let the board confirm and remove, by a 4-1 vote, the chief administrative officer's picks for top posts; create an ethics commission, an independent budget analyst and a program auditor; and require posting of county spending data.

Desmond and DeMaio signed the ballot rebuttal opposing Measure A, which called the term-limit change a reversal of the two-term limit 68% of county voters approved in 2010. Board Chair Lawson-Remer, first elected in 2020, could serve until 2032 under a three-term limit, the Union-Tribune reported.