January Legislative Update: Hold on to your wallets - 2020 is here!

By Kelly Batten

Here at San Diego County Taxpayers Association, we are busy watching out for your hard-earned tax dollars. 2020 is promising potential big hits to your wallets. The good news is, we are busy researching all potential new fees and tax increases coming your way.

In 2019 we created a Tax Evaluation Criteria to help guide decisions on new tax and fee proposals that come before voters. Much like our School Bond Evaluation Criteria, SDCTA has adopted guidelines such as upfront spending plans and citizens oversight committees. As agencies come forward with new tax proposals, we will use the criteria to evaluate the tax proposals and educate voters. Currently, we are working closely with MTS on their potential tax measure. There are others in the pipeline including the $900 million housing bond. Additionally, there will be analyses done on local school bonds- the possibility of up to a dozen more for November. Look for our analyses on these measures late this summer.

While we will do in-depth analyses on local measures, there are also other important taxes, bonds and fee increases coming state-wide. We have updated our position on the November Split Roll initiative, as well as the state-wide school bond.

We have a number of other big items to be reviewed this year and you won’t want to miss out. SDG&E is renegotiating its franchise agreement with the City of San Diego. We will be tracking this closely to ensure our ratepayer funds are spent wisely and looking into how this affects local ratepayer’s pocketbooks.

Now is the time to get involved! Become a member of one of our subcommittees where we discuss these and other important taxpayer related items. Our Quality of Life committee is looking and tracking how homeless funds are being spent and the outcomes associated with that spending as well as the housing crisis we are facing. Our Excellence in Education committee will be reviewing all local school bonds and our Governance and Public Finance committee will be reviewing November tax increase, bond, and fee proposals.

As the local taxpayer watchdog, we look forward to a busy 2020!