County Coalition Pressing Ahead on Sales-Tax Pitch

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.  

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