Paid signature gatherers in front of stores are misleading voters to sign ballot measure they claim supports road improvements and public safety, but the measure is actually a massive sales tax hike
It’s election year in San Diego, and with Covid-19 concerns declining, that means paid petition gatherers are back out in force in front of San Diego grocery stores hoping to get your signature on various measures. However, San Diego voters should beware of what they sign — as one petition backed by powerful special interests is not what it appears to be.
Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, is warning San Diego voters not to sign a petition that is being falsely labeled as a “road improvement and public safety initiative” — when in fact it is a massive sales tax hike. He points out that this will only hurt working families at a time when California’s cost-of-living is already too high.
“Once again, the special interests want to raise your taxes to get more of your money — and they are outright lying to voters to do it,” warned DeMaio.
The measure DeMaio is raising concerns about would impose a sales tax hike of .5% in San Diego County — giving the county one of highest sales tax rates in the nation. This means that the total sales tax rate for most San Diegans could come to well over 8.25%, when combined with California state sales taxes. Some San Diegans in cities with additional sales tax levies would be paying closer to 10% on each and every purchase they make.
DeMaio says the tax increase in the measure will cost the typical San Diego household at least $200 more in tax burden per year.
Instead of receiving a ballot title that reflects the measure as a sales tax hike, San Diego County politicians manipulated the language to read as a “San Diego County Transportation, Infrastructure, and Safety Projects” initiative. There is not a single mention of the massive tax hike in the title — which is the main purpose of the measure.
“San Diego politicians gave this particular ballot measure a completely false and misleading title to try to fool voters into approving a tax hike, so the politicians can spend the money any way they want,” DeMaio said.
The initiative is supported by the San Diego Association of Government (SANDAG), the region’s local transportation agency, and special interest groups that would receive government contracts with the funds collected under the tax hike.
DeMaio says he’s not surprised special interest groups are bankrolling the signature drive to qualify the deceptive ballot measure.
“Under this measure, there is no requirement for fair and open competition on the contracts awarded with the money from the tax increase and the groups backing the measure have already done their backroom deals to commandeer all the money through Project Labor Agreements,” DeMaio explained.
In the past, tax increases like the one contained in this measure required a two-thirds vote of voters to pass, but California Democrats have recently found loopholes in that requirement to lower the threshold to a mere 50%. DeMaio is working with a coalition of tax reformers to raise the requirement back up to two-thirds to protect taxpayers.
What’s worse, says DeMaio, is that the tax revenue raised by the measure will not go to improve transportation in San Diego County.
“The politicians and special-interest backers of this costly tax hike know that the buzzwords of ‘highways’ and ‘public safety’ are popular with voters, so they are emphasizing those words in trying to con voters into supporting the measure, but when you read the actual initiative you’ll find there is no guarantee that a single penny will be spent on improving road and highway capacity for drivers — let alone public safety,” explains DeMaio.
“The measure instead allows all of the money to go to prop up failing transit projects that have proven to be ineffective, unwanted, unused, and unsafe in serving the real transportation needs of San Diego commuters,” DeMaio notes. Less than 2% of San Diego-area commuters use transit and transit ridership has been declining steadily for the past 20 years.
Backers of the measure don’t dispute the fact that 73% of the funding is earmarked for transit and bureaucratic overhead, but they point to a provision that allows up to 27% of allocated funding for road-related infrastructure.
DeMaio counters that the language in that specific section contains loopholes so that not a single penny would have to be spent on roads. In fact, language in that section allows politicians to use all of the “road” money to pay for an “electric bus” program.
“The politicians and special interests backing this measure are nothing more than liars, cheats, and thieves,” said DeMaio. “They have a track record of lying to voters on the ballot to get their money, and then turning around and stealing funds for whatever they want to spend money on,” he concluded.
DeMaio says the project leaves San Diegans intentionally cheated out of transportation relief, and that the measure is just one more step by county Democrats toward eliminating cars and doubling down on “mandate culture” with “transit mandates.”
What can be done to stop the tax hike measure? DeMaio has launched a campaign to defeat the sales tax initiative once it qualifies for the November 2022 ballot.
“This will be a David vs. Goliath fight, so I’m asking everyone to join the campaign today and help us stop this costly and deceptive tax hike,” DeMaio said.
Learn More: Stop the San Diego Sales Tax Increase Ballot Initiative
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