Taxpayers Association Urges City Council to Reject Empty Homes Tax
The San Diego County Taxpayers Association® urges the San Diego City Council to oppose the proposed City of San Diego Empty Homes Tax Ordinance. The Taxpayers’ recommendation is due to concerns that the city has not demonstrated significant benefits to taxpayers which outweigh the uncertainty and potential risks associated with the proposal. A similar empty homes tax in San Francisco was struck down by a judge as unconstitutional and unenforceable after being approved by voters in 2022.
The City of San Diego has also not provided evidence or proposed outcome metrics that could be used to assess whether the tax will improve housing affordability as the proposal claims. Combined with the exclusion of a Sunset Clause and no guarantee of how revenues will be used, the proposal lacks the taxpayer protections that we expect, especially given the City’s structural budget deficit, excessive number of middle management hires over the last five years, and infrastructure funding deficit of $7.8 billion over the next five years.
Additionally, the proposal suggests that tax revenues will be used to fund “municipal services, such as rental assistance and constructing, acquiring, and rehabilitating affordable housing”. However, the proposal contains no language to suggest that any funds raised will be put towards any particular purpose, be it these housing-related goals or others such as addressing critical infrastructure maintenance. Without any such guarantees, taxpayers can expect these new tax dollars will simply be used to help fill the City’s budget deficit that is currently projected to exceed $100 million. We oppose the proposed Empty Homes Tax on these grounds.
The full Taxpayers report on the proposed Empty Homes Tax is available online at www.sdcta.org.
Category: Events, Government, Local News, Nonprofit, Taxation
