Democrats on the county Board of Supervisors are considering a push to raise taxes and using county resources to help gauge if voters would support a ballot measure in 2026. 

The board’s three Democratic supervisors have already directed county staff to hire and pay consultants up to $500,000 to conduct polling and research on potential measures to raise taxes and other possible ways to increase county revenues. That direction came Sept. 30 when board Democrats voted to create a subcommittee led by Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer and Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe to help the county study its financial options. 

If Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe ultimately give the go-ahead, a consultant could prepare a pitch for the full Board of Supervisors to consider by next June, according to a request for quotes from consultants released earlier this month.  

It’s unclear what the county may consider taxing – and Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe’s Sept. 30 board letter on the topic emphasized that a proposed tax hike isn’t a certainty. 

“Enacting this subcommittee does not commit the county to any specific course of action; rather, it will equip the board with a rigorously researched, viable fiscal strategy that offers San Diego the freedom to steer its own course through fiscal disruption as the federal and state government withdraws longstanding commitments to our region,” the two supervisors wrote. 

During her April State of the County speech, Lawson-Remer argued that a “local revenue measure” could shield the county from Trump administration-backed cuts.

The county was also facing a $138.5 million budget deficit at the time. 

Now, as the county plans for a projected $300 million annual hit to the county’s budget as a result of federal cuts, Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe have pushed for the creation of two subcommittees to help the county navigate its next steps. The two supervisors will lead both committees. 

The first, created in August, focused on digging into the potential impact of social service cuts and exploring what it would take to make the county’s behavioral health department a standalone agency. 

The second allows Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe to work with county staff and consultants to hash out ways the county might bring in more revenue. Those planning discussions will happen behind closed doors – and will be presented to the full board when the two supervisors decide those ideas are ready for prime time.  

A tax hike is one of the options they are considering. 

“We have a problem and my belief right now – and I’ve not seen anything to kind of convince me otherwise – is that we need a revenue measure,” Lawson-Remer said. 

Once Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe settle on proposed solutions, they’ll need to present them to the full county board to proceed.  

Not everyone agrees with this strategy. 

“The cost of everything in San Diego County is already too high. Housing is outrageous. Gas, electricity are expensive. Everything else is costing more,” Republican Supervisor Jim Desmond said at the Sept. 30 board meeting. “We cannot and should not add to that. To me, this item is the first step toward putting a new tax on the ballot.”  

Besides the consideration of a potential revenue measure, Lawson-Remer said that the subcommittee’s work may also include communicating with constituents, meeting with stakeholders, conducting a community survey or hosting focus groups. 

“I want to look at every option and see where it lands,” Lawson-Remer said. “The question is what makes the most sense on a lot of dimensions — what’s most efficient at plugging our budget hole.” 

The sustainable fiscal planning subcommittee will focus on a wide array of programs from health insurance and food assistance to child care and fire preparedness. It also encompasses public health, with a concentration on the cross-border Tijuana River sewage crisis in the South Bay. 

“We are under attack from the federal government. They have a laser focus on us,” Lawson-Remer said, referencing upcoming Medicaid and food aid cuts. “They’re slashing programs that are essential to San Diegans, and it’s ultimately going to have hugely negative effects on everything.” 

The Other Subcommittee  

The safety net subcommittee has two distinct layers. First, it seeks to find ways to prepare for and adapt to social service cuts affecting programs like Medicaid. Second, it is considering how to structurally reform the county’s Behavioral Health Services department to strengthen operations. 

As the board considered creating the subcommittee in August, Montgomery Steppe said that the county needs to urgently rethink how it administers Medicaid, CalFresh food stamps and other public benefit programs in the current federal landscape.  

Among the proposed goals that Montgomery Steppe and Lawson Remer laid out in a Aug. 26 board letter: evaluate county staff’s capacity to address new administrative requirements tied to Medicaid and food stamp eligibility determinations, explore partnerships with health care providers and community organizations to help residents with new federal processes and engage with state and federal government officials to  “shape implementation timelines and advocate for local flexibility.” 

Beyond federal cuts, Montgomery Steppe and Lawson-Remer also want to turn the county’s behavioral health department into a standalone agency, something other board members also voted to explore last December. 

Currently, the department is part of the Health and Human Services Agency, which also includes departments like public health, aging and independence services and children’s services.   

“Today BHS accounts for nearly one-third of the entire HHSA budget,” Montgomery Steppe said at the August board meeting. “It manages highly specialized medical, mental health and substance abuse services, but still remains nested in a much larger agency. Elevating BHS to a stand-alone department will allow the county to track funding, outcomes and accountability more directly.”  

Lawson-Remer said the subcommittee will work closely with a consultant to determine the benefits of creating this structural change. 

She’s convinced a stand-alone behavioral health department would provide more opportunities to unlock funding streams and engage with the state more directly on policy.  

“(BHS is) not able to have a seat with the big dogs in Sacramento to negotiate and to shape policy at a statewide level in a way that’s helpful for San Diego, because it’s buried underneath HHSA,” Lawson-Remer said.  

Desmond, who voted last December to explore making the behavioral health department a standalone agency, said in August he continues to support that goal but argued for more public conversations at board meetings versus the two-person subcommittee. 

“I think this is getting supervisors too far into the weeds into the inner workings of the county,” Desmond said. “We’re policymakers, not the department advisers. We’re not the experts at this.”