Escondido voters will decide this fall if they want to increase the city’s sales tax by three-quarters of a cent to pay for city services such as public safety, public works and alleviating homelessness.
The City Council is also considering placing two additional measures on the ballot — one establishing term limits for Escondido elected officials, and one reducing the salary for the city’s elected treasurer position.
At its meeting Wednesday, the City Council voted 4-1 to put the sales tax item on the ballot in November, with Councilmember Joe Garcia opposed. The measure required four votes for approval. Mayor Paul McNamara and council Tina Inscoe, Mike Morasco and Consuelo Martinez ed the measure.
Under the draft ballot language approved by the council, the proposed tax increase would be in place for 15 years and generate about $21 million annually. The city’s operating budget for the current fiscal year is $125.7 million.
The measure requires a simple majority for age. While the city is not legally restricted from using the additional sales tax money as city leaders see fit, the draft ballot language identifies a number of priorities identified during recent voter surveys and community outreach sessions, such as police and fire protection, maintaining parks and infrastructure and addressing homelessness.
The council also added “reducing pension obligations” to the ballot measure’s 75-word description at the behest of Garcia and other , who said the city should be up-front that future pension costs are taking a large chunk out of the city’s annual budget despite efforts to trim pension costs.
According to city staff reports, Escondido faces steep unfunded pension liabilities that require payments of up to $22 million annually between now and 2044, when the payments are projected to end.
In July, the council received the results of a survey showing that between 62 percent and 68 percent of Escondido voters would a sales tax hike, depending on how it was structured. A city staff report noted that although many California cities face unfunded pension costs, of the 201 sales tax measures placed before voters during a recent four-year period, only one included language regarding pension obligations.
The staff report said the city’s consulting team “strongly advise” against including the pension language in the ballot measure description, and that if the language was added, the “statistical reliability of the poll results would no longer be applicable,” and the measure could fail.
A resolution ed by the council along with the ballot measure said the new sales tax revenue would be budgeted and tracked separately from the general fund budget, a citizens’ oversight committee would be established for use of the funds, and an independent audit of the funds would be conducted annually.
Currently, Escondido’s sales tax rate is 7.75 percent, of which 6 percent goes to the state, .25 percent goes to San Diego County, 1 percent stays in Escondido and .5 percent goes to a voter-approved regional transportation fund.
If the measure es, the city’s rate would rise to 8.5 percent, and 1.75 percent would remain in the city for local use. The staff report noted that four cities in San Diego County — National City, Del Mar, Chula Vista and Imperial Beach — have ed one-cent local sales tax increases. Vista and Oceanside have ed half-cent local sales tax hikes.
Despite steps the city has pledged to provide transparency for use of the sales tax money, Garcia said he couldn’t placing the question before voters. “At this time, I don’t feel there are enough protections for taxpayers here in Escondido to move forward with this,” he said.
But Morasco, who voted against a similar measure in 2020, leaving it short the required four council votes for placement on the ballot, said city officials have satisfied his concerns by conducting broad outreach with residents and groups, as well as cutting costs as much as possible.
“I feel there’s been Herculean efforts in those areas,” he said.
Martinez said she ed asking voters to approve a one cent sales tax increase, but was willing to compromise to reach the four-vote threshold for age.
”I see so much need and potential and I want us to thrive,” she said.
“For those who don’t it, where is your plan, what are you going to do to fix this,” she said. “I don’t hear your solutions. This is a solution and I would like the voters to chime in.”
Inscoe said she preferred a sunset provision of 15 to 20 years, and that she would a three-quarter cent levy being placed on the ballot to services desired by residents.
“These are tough times to be making these kinds of decisions. It’s not easy for a lot of folks out there. But it’s not easy for the city to continue to deliver the services it must deliver to the citizens,” Inscoe said.
McNamara said he ed putting a one-cent increase before voters. He said the unfunded pension liability first arose in the early 2000s and past councils did not address the shortfall.
“The issue is we are short money. That bill is not going away. We’ve got to do that. If we don’t increase revenue, we have to start cutting things, the quality-of-life things we all care about in Escondido,” McNamara said.
About two dozen people addressed the council either in writing or in person, with most ing a ballot measure for the proposed sales tax increase.
Among them was Greg Anglea, CEO of Interfaith Community Services, which partners with the city on several programs to address homelessness. Anglea urged the council to put a one-cent levy before voters.
“If resources can’t be provided to provide shelter and housing and services to help people overcome homelessness, it will become an even greater catastrophe than it is today,” Anglea said.
Tom Albergo, a retired Escondido police lieutenant, wrote that he was shocked to learn police staffing is the same today as in the 1990s.
“We want public safety to be at appropriate levels, not 30 years behind. We want our city to be in good financial shape, even if it costs us another penny per dollar. So please, do not be the one who denies the Escondido voter an opportunity to have a say in our city,” he wrote.
In addition to the sales tax measure, the council also considered two other potential ballot measures at Wednesday’s meeting. One measure would establish term limits for elected officials, with two for the mayor and three for council seats and the city treasurer’s office.
A second measure would ask voters whether to reduce the annual salary of the city treasurer from the current $106,000 to the same salary earned by council of $25,000 annually. A city staff report said that four San Diego County cities have an elected treasurer, and the average annual salary among those four cities is $13,742.
The term limit and treasurer items will come back to the council on Aug. 10 for a final decision on whether to place them on the ballot in November.
