Petition For Hotel Tax Hike For Convention Center Apart From Stadium Falls Short

A petition has fallen short of the required signatures needed to put a citizen’s initiative on the November ballot that would raise San Diego's hotel tax to 15.5%, according to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters. The extra tax had been proposed to pay for tourism marketing, help finance a convention center annex, and encourage redevelopment of the 166-acre Qualcomm Stadium site in Mission Valley to expand the University of California San Diego campus.

Dubbed the Citizen’s Plan, the petition needed 73,092 signatures to meet the ballot requirement, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Petition backers, led by local attorney Cory Briggs and former SD City Council member Donna Frye, had submitted 101,897 signatures to election officials, but only 69,949 signatures could be certified as registered voters. The initial verification process selects a random 3% sample of signatures and extrapolates the results over all petitions to project total valid signature results. A more rigorous certification process must be completed by July 12. 

If approved, the measure would allow hotel owners to deduct up to 2% of the charges levied on patrons for tourism marketing, and the other 2% would go for expanding the convention center, but only if it’s not on the waterfront. None of the funds could be used to help pay for a San Diego Chargers stadium (pictured above is the "Convadium," a stadium and convention center exhibit hall complex, proposed by the Chargers). The Chargers are circulating a separate petition, which would raise the hotel tax from 12.5% to 16.5% to help finance a stadium and provide funding for tourism marketing, the convention center annex and repay remaining debt on Qualcomm Stadium. [SDUT]