{"id":237577,"date":"2026-03-26T14:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/237577\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T14:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:12:08","slug":"former-city-councilman-challenges-empty-homes-tax-star-94-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/237577\/","title":{"rendered":"Former City Councilman Challenges \u2018Empty Homes Tax\u2019 | STAR 94.1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former San Diego City Councilman Scott Sherman has filed a legal challenge to the ballot materials for the city\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/timesofsandiego.com\/housing\/2026\/02\/24\/elo-rivera-second-home-tax-committee-chamber-lee-moreno\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Empty Homes Tax<\/a>\u201d measure that will go before voters this summer, which Sherman claims feature false and misleading statements.<\/p>\n<p>In a series of legal petitions filed this week, Sherman alleges voters are being presented with inaccurate information regarding the effects of Measure A, which if passed will impose a tax on second homes that sit empty for more than half the year. The City Council\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/timesofsandiego.com\/politics\/2026\/03\/03\/council-empty-second-homes-tax-june-ballot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">voted 8-1<\/a>\u00a0earlier this month to place the measure on the June 2 ballot.<\/p>\n<p>Sherman claims that the ballot question, ballot argument and official impartial analysis connected to Measure A falsely suggest the measure will confer certain guaranteed results such as increased housing availability and millions in annual revenue that will go toward affordable housing, homelessness prevention and other city services.<\/p>\n<p>He also says the materials claim there will be independent financial audits of how the measure\u2019s taxes are spent, but that the measure\u2019s language does not specifically state that audits are required.<\/p>\n<p>The petition seeks to have the city ordered to amend or remove the contested statements and order City Clerk Diana Fuentes not to print the ballot arguments as written.<\/p>\n<p>A San Diego City Attorney\u2019s Office spokesperson said the office could not comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n<p>Shane Harris, spokesperson for the No on Measure A campaign, said in a statement. \u201cThis is about ensuring voters are given accurate and honest information. Regardless of where you stand on the policy, ballot language must be clear, neutral and truthful so voters can make informed decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(Photo: ABC 10)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former San Diego City Councilman Scott Sherman has filed a legal challenge to the ballot materials for the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,93887,74,1856,1857,1858,76,75,1855,105914],"class_list":["post-237577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-empty-homes-tax","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-celebrities","tag-san-diego-concerts","tag-san-diego-events","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-photos","tag-scott-sherman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}