Carl DeMaio Launches Campaign to Defeat San Diego “Garbage Tax”

San Diego city politicians have placed a measure on the November 2022 ballot to impose a costly and unfair “Garbage Tax” on all homeowners. Worse, the title and description ballot measure written by these same city politicians is worded in a misleading and deceptive way to hide the fact that it is a garbage tax.

Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, says the tax is yet another unnecessary tax on San Diego’s struggling families by greedy politicians. DeMaio has launched a grassroots campaign to defeat the proposal and is asking residents to join the fight at www.StopTheGarbageTax.org

“San Diegans already have one of the highest cost of living burdens in the nation — and the massive surge in inflation is making things even harder,” says DeMaio. “Despite this, San Diego city politicians are proposing to add to that financial burden by imposing a new Garbage Tax on all homeowners,” DeMaio notes.

How much will this new Garbage Tax cost San Diegans? A whopping $350-500 more per year according to DeMaio’s group.

City politicians say trash services are currently “free” and that the tax is needed to continue service — but DeMaio that is grossly misleading.

He points to the People’s Ordinance in 1919, passed by voters to direct the City of San Diego to earmark a portion of existing property tax revenues to provide trash service. This policy of using existing property tax assessments was reaffirmed by voters in 1981 and 1986.

“Under these three separate voter-approved measures, you are already paying for trash service — but city politicians have proposed this scheme to double-charge you,” explains DeMaio.

City politicians have also attempted to justify the proposal by saying that it is “unfair” for apartments to have to pay for trash service while single family homes get trash service without an additional charge.

DeMaio agrees that charing apartments is unfair, but points out that city politicians enacted this unfair apartment policy by exploiting a loophole in the People Ordinances approved in 1919, 1981 and 1986.

“To restore fairness, both single family homes and apartment complexes should receive trash service under current tax allocations — the easy fix is that the City of San Diego should go back to complying with the People’s Ordinance for all residential properties,” explains DeMaio.

DeMaio is urging all San Diego city residents to join the campaign to block the “Garbage Tax” in the November 2022 election.