The Downtown San Diego Partnership, a non-profit organization focused on representing Downtown San Diego as the leading economic, cultural, and government center of the region to over 11,000 property owners and 400 business members, has announced its support for the Yes! For A Better San Diego initiative.
The Downtown Partnership has recognized the need for permanent funding sources for both homeless services and the modernization of the San Diego Convention Center, and last year took a position of conceptual support for Mayor Faulconer’s proposed ballot measure to finance a contiguous convention center expansion and spending related to infrastructure and homelessness. The Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the initiative, which proposes a forty-two-year increase to the City of San Diego’s visitor tax and is forecasted to generate $3.78 billion to expand the San Diego Convention Center, $2.02 billion for homelessness services, and $604 million for street improvements.
Expanding the San Diego Convention Center at its existing site is an essential step in retaining large conventions, creating additional jobs, and growing San Diego’s tourism economy. Investing in a long-term funding source to care for the city's most vulnerable community members and improve the infrastructure is just as vital to the social and economic health of the community.
“The broad support for this measure demonstrates how important a competitive convention center is to our tourism economy,” said Craig Benedetto, Chairman of the Partnership’s Board of Directors. “Expanding the San Diego Convention Center, while also supporting increased homelessness services and street repairs, is vital to our region.”
The Yes! For A Better San Diego initiative proposes investing more than $140 million on addressing homelessness in the first five years of the measure. Since there is currently no dedicated source of funding to reduce homelessness in San Diego, the initiative will have an immediate impact on the issue throughout the region. The initiative will also spur economic development through increased Convention Center visitors.
The initiative must garner 71,000 signatures to appear on the November 2018 ballot. If approved by voters, the measure would increase the City of San Diego’s transient occupancy tax, which is currently 10.5 percent, by 1.25 to 3.25 percent, depending on the lodging’s proximity to the San Diego Convention Center.
Abstaining from the vote were James Lawson, Rip Rippetoe, and Bess Wakeman.
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