Opinion: A citizen-led sales tax initiative could solve San Diego’s budget crisis

Imagine tackling the city of San Diego’s budget crisis through a one-cent sales tax with a ballot initiative written by the people and for the people.

This quixotic thought crossed my mind as civic opposition to Mayor Todd Gloria’s 2026-27 budget proposal hits a fever pitch. To me, it seems the fiscal blueprint’s draconian cuts to neighborhood libraries, parks, recreation centers and arts-and-culture programs are driven by his misplaced anger at the voters who opposed his 2024 Penny for Progress ballot proposition. 

What elected official wouldn’t be infatuated with the idea of a $400 million infusion of taxpayer money into the city’s general fund each year?  Poof! The city’s yawning $146 million budget shortfall would be erased, and our strong mayor and malleable city councilmembers would be handed a nearly half-a-billion-dollar piggy bank. Such ready access to non-discretionary taxpayer revenue is irresistible to the high-rolling political donors, lobbyists and city hall insiders who would be certain to come calling, self-serving project wish lists in hand.

It’s beyond me how the mayor thought his ballot initiative would win over a majority of voters in the wake of the 101 Ash Street scandal, and as he spitched the $18 million conversion of a dilapidated Middletown printing plant into a 1,000-bed homeless mega-shelter to the tune of a $72 million, 30-year lease.

Here’s what I believe: San Diegans are smart, compassionate people who care deeply about improving the quality of life in our beautiful, bighearted city. If our elected officials were to agree to open the city’s budget to a reputable, civically-engaged regional nonprofit — the Prebys Foundation comes to mind — and invite the public to participate in an honest conversation about how we, the people, would envision our municipal government spending $400 million a year, I’m confident a majority of San Diegans would vote in favor of a one-cent sales tax increase. 

A ballot initiative, guided by that level of citizen involvement in our representative government, would truly be a Penny for Progress.

A second-generation San Diegan and nonprofit consultant, Molly Bowman-Styles is the president of Windansea Communications.