Two labor unions and a child care advocacy group on Friday filed a proposed countywide sales-tax hike they’ve dubbed the Protect San Diego County’s Health & Safety Act with the county Registrar of Voters in hopes of making the November 2026 ballot. 

The proposed half-cent sales tax measure – which would raise a projected $360 million annually – aims to fund health care, child care, solutions to the Tijuana River sewage crisis and public safety. 

The Service Employees International Union Local 221, child care advocacy group Children First San Diego and Cal Fire Local 2881 expect to start collecting signatures next month.  

“We’re taking urgent action on the biggest health and safety threats San Diego County is facing – Tijuana River toxic sewage, strained 911 response, working families losing healthcare, childcare, and even the basic food they need to survive,” SEIU 221 President Crystal Irving wrote in a statement. “Our coalition is determined to give voters the power to choose a safer, healthier future and starting soon we’ll be out in every community gathering signatures and working with neighbors to protect San Diego County families.”  

Proposed ballot language submitted to the Registrar of Voters Friday describes a slew of causes that proponents aim to support with a half-cent sales-tax increase. Up to 60 percent of funding – the equivalent of $261 million annually – could back child care and health services for children, health care for uninsured or underinsured people, food aid including staffing for CalFresh eligibility workers in the county, in-home health services and affordable health care. 

Nearly 23 percent – or roughly $81 million annually – would go toward combating the Tijuana sewage crisis, with at least 20 percent of this share of funds directed toward infrastructure projects to “stop sewage flows from Tijuana into the United States or through the Tijuana River Valley.” The measure says the funding could also address related health issues and protect local waters from pollution. 

Nearly 18 percent – or almost $63 million annually – could back public safety services, wildfire prevention and crisis response.  

Proponents also capped administrative costs at 1.5 percent, or about $5 million annually. 

The proposed measure also calls for an 11-member citizens oversight committee to conduct annual audits and bars spending on politicians’ salaries, lobbyist contracts or government office renovations. 

The citizen-backed effort is 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. The county faces an estimated $300 million annual budget hit tied to federal cuts. 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 revenues that may require changes to other policies. 

In a Friday statement, Lawson-Remer lauded the proposed citizen measure. 

“This San Diego County Health & Safety citizens initiative offers a key tool that voters could choose to support in order to defend our community and our values: to keep our water clean, to keep our hospitals open, and to make sure firefighters and first responders have the resources they need when the next wildfire hits,” Lawson-Remer wrote. “When Washington walks away, our community refuses to look the other way.” 

The decision to proceed with a citizens’ measure doesn’t rule out a potential future measure pushed by county supervisors. Yet Lawson-Remer’s quick endorsement shows she’s eager to see a citizens’ group push a measure forward that only requires a simple majority for a ballot victory. 

The coalition behind it will face an uphill battle to persuade skeptical voters already facing an avalanche of rising costs – and to get on the ballot in the first place. 

Courtney Baltiyskyy of Children First San Diego said the coalition expects to hit the streets in January to try to collect at least 140,000 signatures. They’ll need to deliver at least 102,923 valid signatures to get on next November’s ballot. 

The county coalition also expects to have some competition next November.  

The coalition that includes Laborers Local Union 89, Carpenters Union Local 619, and Rebuild SoCal are rallying behind a one-cent sales tax hike for city of San Diego for infrastructure repairs, wildfire prevention, pipe repairs for clean water and more.  

Both coalitions have recently circulated polls testing voters’ appetite for separate city and county measures and shared some intel.  

Their intel-sharing follows the November 2024 demise of Measures E and G, separate city and countywide sales-tax proposals. San Diego politicos are skeptical voters would support two sales-tax hikes.  

The results of an initial poll of city voters conducted around Labor Day on the city measure suggested both city and county measures suggested a challenging climate for proposed tax increases. 

Results obtained by Voice of San Diego show 57 percent of the 776 voters polled said they thought the county was on the wrong track and 60 percent said the same of the city.   

Baltiyskyy said Friday the countywide coalition believes it has a path to victory – and that support for it will grow as voters and local organizations learn more.