San Diego officials abandon tax ballot measure to raise $1.6 billion for stormwater infrastructure

Summary

Here's a summary of the key points from the provided documents:

San Diego officials have abandoned a tax ballot measure aimed at raising $1.6 billion for stormwater infrastructure upgrades.

The decision was made after changes to a proposed state constitutional amendment (Proposition 5) that would have lowered the vote threshold for special tax measures from two-thirds to 55%.

The city faces a $1.6 billion funding shortfall for maintenance and upgrades to its aging stormwater system.

A previous attempt at implementing a stormwater fee was abandoned in 2022 due to lack of voter support.

The city's stormwater infrastructure deficit has more than doubled in the past five years and is now larger than the unfunded needs for roads, streetlights, and sidewalks combined.

Recent flooding events have highlighted the urgent need for stormwater infrastructure improvements.

The City of San Diego has developed Water Quality Improvement Plans (WQIPs) for various watersheds to protect and improve water quality.

The city has a Jurisdictional Runoff Management Plan to prevent and reduce stormwater pollution within city boundaries.

Various studies, reports, and plans have been conducted or developed, including a Stormwater Fee Study, Watershed Asset Management Plan, and Comprehensive Load Reduction Plans.

The city regularly conducts surveys to gauge public knowledge of stormwater issues and guide outreach efforts and priorities.

This summary highlights the challenges San Diego faces in funding and maintaining its stormwater infrastructure, as well as the city's efforts to address water quality and runoff management issues.

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — San Diego officials are halting an effort to place a tax measure aimed at increasing funding to close a nearly $1.6 billion shortfall for maintenance and upgrades to the city’s aging stormwater system.

In a joint statement, city council leaders and advocacy groups said the decision to ditch the measure for this year’s election was made after a proposed state constitutional amendment on how local governments raise revenue for infrastructure projects underwent “substantial changes.”

The amendment, Proposition 5, would have lowered the vote threshold needed to pass general bonds or special tax measures dedicated to public infrastructure from two-thirds to 55% — something San Diego leaders were banking on when pursuing the stormwater tax measure.

However, state lawmakers removed special tax measures from the constitutional amendment’s language earlier this year, leaving the approval threshold for these initiatives at two-thirds for the forseeable future.

City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, who led the push to get the stormwater ballot measure before voters in the wake of January’s devastating floods, said putting the brakes on the initiative would be prudent in light of this change despite the urgent need for the funding.

“The two-thirds voter approval threshold for infrastructure revenue is undemocratic and has stood as an impediment to San Diego making critical improvements,” Elo-Rivera explained. “Our coalition saw real hope in the proposal to change the threshold to 55% and were confident voters would strongly support the ballot measure we were advancing.”

“Unfortunately, the rules we thought we would be playing by were changed and our coalition decided the most responsible thing to do is to pause, continue growing our coalition, and create a plan for securing the dedicated revenue needed to provide San Diegans with clean and safe neighborhoods, beaches, and bays,” he continued.

A draft of the tax measure was approved unanimously by the city’s Rules Committee in June, sending it to the complete council to be heard later this month.

Described as “transformative” for the city, the initiative would have created a seven-cent parcel tax based on a property’s “impermeable surface area,” or sections of land where water cannot be absorbed.

Projections from the city’s budget analyst found the fee would generate $129.6 million per year to put towards closing the $1.6 billion funding shortfall for the backlogged projects needed to maintain and update San Diego’s stormwater system — a task city staff added would have been complete within 10 years of the tax’s implementation.

It would have been the city’s second attempt at implementing such a fee to increase investments in local stormwater infrastructure in the last few years. The first, which was a similar property tax, was axed in 2022 due to polls showing less support than the 60% threshold needed to pass.

“The city has a $1.6 billion budget deficit for stormwater infrastructure funding, which leaves communities vulnerable and unprotected,” Nicole Capretz, founder and CEO of Climate Action Campaign, said in the joint statement on Friday.

“While I support the decision to withhold our measure from this year’s ballot, we’ve seen the consequences of disinvestment in the devastating historic floods this year,” Capretz continued, “and we must do everything we can to triple down on solutions to protect community health, safety, and clean water — particularly in underserved communities.”

Contributors: Bennett Lacy / Producer

Published February 1, 2024 at 5:31 PM PST

San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera announced plans Wednesday to ask voters for more revenue to fund stormwater infrastructure and disaster recovery efforts.

The announcement at a meeting of the council's Rules Committee came nine days after a heavy storm overwhelmed the city's stormwater channels and caused flash flooding on freeways and in neighborhoods including Southcrest, Mountain View and Encanto.

San Diego officials have long been aware of the deep backlog of repairs to stormwater infrastructure. A report released in January found the city would need an additional $1.6 billion to fully fund all its stormwater needs. That deficit has more than doubled in the past five years and is now larger than the unfunded needs of the city's roads, streetlights and sidewalks combined.

"Today, I can think of no more pressing need than stormwater infrastructure and disaster recovery," Elo-Rivera said. "Those storms will keep coming, and the climate won't stop changing, while we get bogged down by politics and bureaucracy. The time for action is now."

Elo-Rivera's office said he is still developing the details of his proposal, such as what the city would tax and by how much. But it would likely need the approval of six city councilmembers to be placed on the November ballot.

The threshold of approval that the measure would need from voters is still unclear. For decades, California law has required a two-thirds majority for voters to approve local taxes dedicated to a specific purpose.

But a statewide proposition set for the Nov. 5 general election would lower that threshold to 55% if the taxes would fund affordable housing or public infrastructure. The proposition states that if it's approved, the lower threshold would also apply to local tax measures that appear on the same Nov. 5 ballot.

Whether the inclusion of "disaster recovery" in a local stormwater tax measure would count as public infrastructure is unclear.

In February 2022, San Diego's Stormwater Department released the results of polling to test the viability of a local tax measure to fund stormwater infrastructure. The poll asked voters whether they would support a tax of 4 cents, 4.5 cents or 5 cents per square foot of a property's impermeable surface. That would scale the tax to how much stormwater runs off a property, while exempting gardens or yards where water can be absorbed by the earth.

All three tax options won support from more than 55% of voters, even when respondents were fed critical statements about the measure. The two-thirds threshold was cleared only after voters were read favorable statements, and even then, two-thirds support was within the margin of error.

When asked what priorities were most important to them, 87% of respondents said protecting the local supply of clean drinking water was either important or very important. Only 66% said the same for maintaining stormwater channels or preventing flooding.

At least one other local tax measure will be on the Nov. 5 ballot: a countywide half-cent sales tax increase to fund transportation infrastructure. That measure qualified for the ballot via a signature gathering campaign, meaning it needs only a simple majority to pass.

Councilmember Raul Campillo is also seeking to ask voters for a sales tax increase that would boost the city's general fund and help overcome its chronic budget deficits. Such a tax measure would need only a simple majority to pass because the funds would not be dedicated to a specific purpose.

Water Quality Improvement Plans

The City collaborated with other jurisdictions and stakeholders throughout the San Diego Region to develop Water Quality Improvement Plans (WQIP) for each watersheds within its jurisdiction. The goal of the WQIPs is to protect, preserve, enhance, and restore water quality of receiving water bodies. This goal will be accomplished through an adaptive planning and management process that identifies the highest priority water quality conditions within a watershed and implements strategies to achieve improvements in the quality of discharges from the Responsible Agencies' storm drain systems.

The City of San Diego is the lead on the WQIP development for the San Dieguito, Los Peñasquitos and Mission Bay watersheds. The City is also a participating agency in the San Diego River, San Diego Bay and Tijuana River watersheds. For more information on the plans and annual reporting, please visit the link below:

Project Clean Water

The City of San Diego prepared the Mission Bay Watershed WQIP FY 21 Annual Report. The Mission Bay WQIP FY 21 Annual Report includes additional information related to the City actions to address water quality regulations and improve water quality shown in the online dashboards.

To estimate the funding need for implementing the WQIP strategies, the City developed a robust cost tool that calculates and organizes the annual cost for each strategy. For more information about the development of the tool, anticipated costs and potential improvements, see the fact sheet below:

Stormwater WQIP Costing Tool Fact Sheet.pdf

To support the development of the WQIPs, the City performed a literature review and accompanying analysis to quantify potential pollutant load reductions associated with certain non-structural best management practices or strategies. The results are summarized in the following technical memorandum:

Nonstructural Non-Modeled Activity Pollutant Load Reduction Research - Addendum

Jurisdictional Runoff Management Plan

The City's Jurisdictional Runoff Management Plan encompasses citywide programs and activities designed to prevent and reduce stormwater pollution within City boundaries. Read more here.

Stormwater Fee Study

The City of San Diego Stormwater Fee Study was completed to meet a requirement in the Settlement Agreement and Release for the City’s Master Maintenance Program and Programmatic Environmental Impact Report. The Agreement stipulates that the City shall complete a fee study, conducted by a third-party expert, within three years of the effective date of the Agreement (Sept. 27, 2013) and shall post the Fee Study on the City Stormwater Division’s website by Sept. 26, 2016.

Stormwater Fee Study 2016

Watershed Asset Management Plan

The Stormwater Division has prepared the following Watershed Asset Management Plan to identify the broad investments required to maintain the City's stormwater management system. The plan is consistent with the City's general asset management practices and is one of the first comprehensive asset management planning efforts in the stormwater field that addresses both flood risk management and storm water quality. The Plan incorporates the strategies identified in the Comprehensive Load Reduction Plans also available on this page as a foundation for meeting the requirements and compliance standards of the new Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board on May 8, 2013.

Watershed Asset Management Plan 2.0

Comprehensive Load Reduction Plans
(2013 Update)

The following Comprehensive Load Reduction Plans (CLRPs) are the second phase of an ongoing effort to identify the projects and funding levels needed to comply with stormwater regulations established by the Regional Water Quality Control Board. These updated plans expand on the methodology and rationale presented in the initial CLRP documents filed with the Board on Oct. 4, 2012 (available below). The City will continue to refine the project list and cost estimate presented in these plans and expects to post further updates at a future date. The City encourages public evaluation of these documents and welcomes questions, comments and suggestions for improvements.

Comprehensive Load Reduction Plans

Bacteria-1 Total Maximum Daily Load

Areas of Special Biological Significance

Areas of Special Biological Significance (ASBS) are areas unique in marine diversity and opportunity for beneficial use and research. There are 34 ASBS along California's coast where water quality is monitored by the State. Two of these areas are located off of the La Jolla coast.

Master Stormwater System Maintenance Program

The City of San Diego has adopted a Master Stormwater System Maintenance Program for flood control facilities in neighborhoods across the City. The Master Program will allow the City to better identify flood control channels requiring maintenance services over the next five years. Each fiscal year, the City will identify a small group of channels that have deposits of sediment and overgrowth of vegetation requiring maintenance to restore flood control capacity.

Master Stormwater System Maintenance Program

Strategic Plan for Watershed Activity Implementation

In 2007, the Stormwater Division created The Strategic Plan for Watershed Activity Implementation as part of the requirements of the 2007 Municipal Storm Water Permit (NPEDES Order No. R9-2007-001). This document has been replaced by the Water Quality Improvement Plans.

Surveys

As part of the Stormwater Division's commitment ot pollution prevention, surveys are conducted on a regular basis to gauge the public's knowledge of stormwater and help guide our outreach efforts and Division priorities.

Water Quality Studies

The Stormwater Division conducts many studies on many subjects including pollution prevention and flood protection efforts. These studies allow the Division to improve efficiencies and maximize benefits to the community and the environment.

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