Early results show San Diego voters rejecting Measure A

Opponents of a San Diego ballot measure that would heavily tax second and third homes left vacant for most of the year are declaring victory.

The first round of unofficial results released Tuesday night showed 58% voting no on Measure A. Thousands of additional votes, including any ballots mailed after June 1 and in-person votes, still must be counted in the coming days.

Opponents have called the proposal an attack on the rich and an opening for more government oversight on homeowners.

“Tonight, San Diego sent a clear message,” said Shane Harris, a local business owner and activist who works as a spokesperson for the No on Measure A campaign. San Diegans “said ‘no’ to a tax that was sold as a housing solution but did not guarantee $1 to housing.”

Supporters of the tax proposal remain hopeful, however, saying the result remains in the balance.

“Whatever the final number, the fight to make San Diego a place working people can afford has only just started,” said San Diego Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who championed iterations of this proposal for the past year. “We’re going to count every vote, and we’re going to keep going either way.”

Opponents outspent supporters by a factor of 9 to 1 to kill the proposal, according to the last expenditure filing. At least one of the ads put out by the No campaign featured a false claim, as inewsource previously reported. 

The proposal called for a $8,000 tax for the first year beginning in 2027 and $10,000 every following year. Corporate-owned empty homes would pay a $4,000 surcharge the first year and $5,000 every following year. The tax and surcharge would adjust based on inflation beginning in 2029.

Less than 1% of the homes in San Diego would be subject to the tax. The proposal targeted property owners who do not claim homes as a primary residence and do not rent them out, instead leaving them vacant for more than 182 days in a calendar year. About 5,100 homes meet that threshold in San Diego, records show.

The tax was projected to generate between $9 million and $21 million in the first year, but it was largely dependent on how property owners reacted. It would do nothing to help close the city’s immediate $140 million budget deficit. 

The question of whether to tax property owners who intentionally keep non-primary homes vacant in the middle of a housing crisis has divided San Diegans in recent months. And it came at a time when limited housing supply has kept rents high for years — in a region where more people fall into homelessness for the first time than leave the streets for housing.

Breanna Barbier, who voted in person in La Jolla, said she voted no because she’s concerned about overreach in taxation.

“That one was not a difficult one to vote on,” Barbier said of Measure A. “It didn’t require a ton of research.”

Joann Masters, who voted in person downtown, said the ballot language wasn’t clear.

“It looked to me like it was punishing people who had rentals,” Masters said, “and at one time we had a rental here and I would not have wanted to be charged an extra tax if it weren’t occupied.”

Voters in North Park had a different view. Anwar Hussen said people need to start paying their fair share. Jessica Kava said she was on board the moment she heard about the proposal.

“I don’t understand why San Diego is charging residents so much for parking when we could be doing things like taxing secondary homes instead,” Kava said.