{"id":32776,"date":"2025-11-01T00:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T00:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/32776\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T00:58:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T00:58:16","slug":"city-wont-turn-off-its-tap-on-taxpayers-unless-its-forced-to-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/32776\/","title":{"rendered":"City won\u2019t turn off its \u2018tap\u2019 on taxpayers unless it\u2019s forced to \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the City Council\u2019s Oct. 28 meeting \u2014 as members hunted for someone, anyone, to blame<\/a> for the fact that they were being told they had no choice but to OK raising water rates by 31% over the next two years and sewer rates by 31% over the next four years \u2014 a grimly telling moment occurred. Marni von Wilpert \u201csuggested the city should decline to pay the County Water Authority as a protest move because the authority hasn\u2019t tried hard enough to avoid rate hikes,\u201d the U-T reported. \u201c\u2019Don\u2019t pay the water bill,\u2019 she said. \u2018They\u2019re not going to turn off our tap.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

By this logic, San Diegans should decline to pay city fees and taxes because our elected leaders haven\u2019t tried hard enough to control the cost of government \u2014 for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n

In 2006, voters gave landslide approval to a charter amendment meant to clear the way for private firms to provide many city services, including \u2014 but of course \u2014 trash collection. Yet it\u2019s been more than a dozen years since such privatization was even raised as an option by elected leaders, and earlier this year City Attorney Heather Ferbert betrayed promises to be an independent voice at City Hall by adding bogus obstacles<\/a> to its use.<\/p>\n

In 2012, voters gave landslide approval to a measure meant to sharply reduce long-term city spending by ending defined-benefit pensions for most new hires. But after it was thrown out on disputed legal grounds, no one at City Hall even bothered to suggest that maybe voters\u2019 wishes should still be heeded<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, the tax- and fee-hiking frenzy seen in recent years \u2014 especially with the bait-and-switch<\/a> trash fee scheme and the approval of first-ever parking fees at beloved Balboa Park \u2014 seems to be gaining speed. An Oct. 17 U-T story<\/a> noted that council members had given initial support to officials\u2019 push to increase the fees that hotels pay for two valet street parking spots by a mind-boggling 833% \u2014 from $600 to $5,600 a year.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what city residents and businesses need to realize: The city isn\u2019t going to turn off its tap on everyone\u2019s bank accounts until our leaders grasp that they risk a huge backlash. Under Proposition 218, it would only take a little more than 21,000 verified resident signatures<\/a> to place a measure on the 2026 ballot repealing trash and parking fees. In a City Hall that thinks increasing a fee by 833% is reasonable, the threat of such a ballot measure is a necessary response to the mania of those in charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the City Council\u2019s Oct. 28 meeting \u2014 as members hunted for someone, anyone, to blame for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1965,975,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-32776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-editorials","tag-opinion","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32776","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=32776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}