City won’t turn off its ‘tap’ on taxpayers unless it’s forced to

At the City Council’s Oct. 28 meeting — as members hunted for someone, anyone, to blame 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 — a grimly telling moment occurred. Marni von Wilpert “suggested the city should decline to pay the County Water Authority as a protest move because the authority hasn’t tried hard enough to avoid rate hikes,” the U-T reported. “’Don’t pay the water bill,’ she said. ‘They’re not going to turn off our tap.’”

By this logic, San Diegans should decline to pay city fees and taxes because our elected leaders haven’t tried hard enough to control the cost of government — for nearly two decades.

In 2006, voters gave landslide approval to a charter amendment meant to clear the way for private firms to provide many city services, including — but of course — trash collection. Yet it’s 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 to its use.

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’ wishes should still be heeded.

Instead, the tax- and fee-hiking frenzy seen in recent years — especially with the bait-and-switch trash fee scheme and the approval of first-ever parking fees at beloved Balboa Park — seems to be gaining speed. An Oct. 17 U-T story noted that council members had given initial support to officials’ push to increase the fees that hotels pay for two valet street parking spots by a mind-boggling 833% — from $600 to $5,600 a year.

Here’s what city residents and businesses need to realize: The city isn’t going to turn off its tap on everyone’s 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 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.