Santee residents will decide this November on a proposal to increase the city’s general sales tax by 1%. The City Council voted in June to place Measure Y on the ballot.
Santee has not adopted a local sales tax measure since incorporating in 1980. Since then, the city has grown, straining roads, stormwater facilities and other public infrastructure that were not designed to handle the demands.
Currently, the city receives the standard 1% share of the 7.75% overall tax rate.
If approved, Measure Y would raise the overall rate to 8.75%, adding one additional cent for every dollar of taxable items.
That new rate would give 2% back to the city to be used to maintain and improve essential services and repair outdated infrastructure.
San Diego County Taxpayers Association has endorsed Santee’s temporary one-cent sales tax measure.
“Well it’s a temporary 10-year tax and it is designed to go toward making some progress on the city's deferred maintenance and infrastructure backlog,” said the organization’s president and CEO Mark Kersey.
Santee officials said they've been able to maintain a balanced budget as the city's population has grown over time, but the city lacks funding to address more than $300 million in infrastructure projects.
The city said Measure Y would fund many of those projects, such as storm drain replacements and more.
“Whether it’s streets and roads in terms of being repaved, whether it's a fire station, whether its bridges, park facilities — these are all things we support and we believe folks would want to see in Santee as well,” Kersey said.
Still, he acknowledges the challenges people face with the high cost of living and strained budgets.
“I think that's what the voters have to weigh ultimately, whether the projects proposed in Santee in this case are worth the extra expense,” Kersey said. “Because obviously this is going to be funded by the folks who live and work and shop in Santee."
Groceries, prescription medicine and diapers are exempt from the tax.
Councilmember Ronn Hall was the lone vote against putting Measure Y on the ballot back in June because he said the “city studied a half-cent increase.”
Hall said on his personal website, “There’s a difference between asking voters for something and asking them for twice what you told them you were considering.”
To pass, Measure Y must receive a simple majority of the vote.
