Over the last few months, more and more citizens are learning about SANDAG and their plans to push more and more taxes onto San Diego citizens even during difficult times for many. On Thursday night, North County conservatives gathered for a town hall with Reform California chair Carl DeMaio, who spoke about the different taxes SANDAG is proposing.
The town hall, hosted at the Veterans Association of North County in Oceanside, was fully packed with dozens of concerned citizens and elected officials. SANDAG recently passed their regional transportation plan which will cost $160 billion dollars and will be funded by a number of tax increases. Those taxes include an increased sales tax and a mileage tax. The mileage tax is the crux of SANDAG’s plan, which would tax the mileage citizens of San Diego drive. Chairman of Reform California Carl DeMaio spoke about the tax increases and how detrimental those increases would be to working citizens, “You would think in the middle of hyper-inflation and skyrocketing costs of living in California that these local politicians would just back off and stop adding to the burdens of working families.” In attendance at the town hall were a number of elected officials. Assemblywoman Laurie Davies spoke out against SANDAG’s plan and criticized politicians who supported the plan. County Supervisor Jim Desmond spoke about how the true cost of the plan could be more than the proposed $160 billion. Desmond also said that government inefficiency in transportation projects would drag out the plan for too long, citing the blue line extension to UCSD as an example.
Many people, including DeMaio, said that the money should be going to road repair. SANDAG’s transportation plan is mostly going to mass transit, with SANDAG admitting that they want 10% of San Diegans to be taking mass transit. One attendee of the event said that there are just too many government projects that take money and waste it, “There are so many governments; state, county, local, regional that take our money, and I don’t appreciate how a lot of it is spent”.
Among the city governments that voted no on the SANDAG plan in December were Carlsbad, Coronado, El Cajon, Oceanside, Santee, San Marcos, Poway, and Vista. With 2022 just around the corner Republicans are hoping to bring the SANDAG plan to light and stop the tax hikes that will only hurt working families and lead to more government wasteful spending.
Photo Cred: Mike Blake/Reuters
