SANDAG’s Big Tax Expectations — Voice of San Diego

The San Diego Affiliation of Governments board is scheduled to vote at the moment on a brand new, 30-year define of the area’s transportation future. They’ll achieve this only a week after the years-long course of of writing it was dramatically upended by the revelation that the board’s Democratic leaders didn’t assist its most controversial coverage.

That coverage was the highway person cost, a plan to cost drivers for each mile they drive. SANDAG assumed that the state would start charging drivers that approach by 2030, and that they may piggyback on it by levying a countywide cost on the similar time.

The company anticipated to usher in about $19 billion that approach by 2050, earlier than Democrats introduced a plan to vote for the plan whereas sketching out a technique of eradicating the cost later.

Republicans on the board have been campaigning towards it since 2019, and it had change into a trigger inside right-wing media. However that conservative opposition, in some methods, shielded SANDAG from different criticism of the concept.

Colin Guardian, for example, director of Flow into San Diego and a La Mesa councilman, advised our Andrew Keatts that his difficulty was merely that the concept was too speculative. It’s unlawful to levy the cost now, and if that doesn’t change the cash won’t ever come. Assuming it is going to imply SANDAG hasn’t needed to have powerful conversations over its priorities.

As Keatts lays out, although, there are different assumptions about new revenue in the measure that haven’t generated as much scrutiny. The company expects, for example, that voters will approve gross sales tax will increase in 2022, 2024 and 2028.

Click here to read the full story.

Protesters Occupy the Prebys Basis Workplace

A bunch of tenants and activists occupied the workplace of the Conrad Prebys Basis in Mission Valley on Thursday. They demanded that the charitable group act as an middleman with the brand new managers to forestall evictions, hold rents low long run, make repairs and arrange a course of to deal with grievances. Issues like cockroaches and leaky roofs.

“We’re already in a housing disaster,” mentioned Luis Fernando Anguiano, a communications affiliate with the Alliance of Californians for Neighborhood Empowerment, which organized the occasion. “That is solely gonna worsen if we don’t put a cease to it now.”

In August, the Prebys Basis closed a take care of Blackstone and one its funding companions for round $1 billion. Blackstone, a non-public fairness agency, turned one of the biggest landlords in San Diego County in a single day, bringing hundreds of models into its already-impressive portfolio.

The inspiration has been on the defensive ever since — arguing that it received the very best deal for all of San Diego by elevating new funds for grants that might go in the direction of science, the humanities and whatnot.

However as Lisa Halverstadt and Jesse Marx reported in Could, affordable housing advocates were frustrated that they hadn’t been given extra time to search out various patrons. Blackstone was a extremely controversial choose for a charitable group, given its historical past within the housing market.

In 2019, rapporteurs for the United Nations concluded that the agency’s apply of turning houses into monetary devices that have been then traded on world markets was displacing folks within the identify of revenue.

The inspiration’s director of operations, Nikki Phair, tried to cross the protesters alongside to a media consultant on Thursday and the president of the board, Dan Yates, issued a press release later within the day reiterating that his group had no affect over the properties to attach either side. When the protesters refused to budge, Phair and one other worker left to search out safety. 

The group chanted within the meantime, “Blackstone, Blackstone, you may’t disguise, we will see your grasping facet.” 

Everybody disbanded after the cops confirmed up however not with out a little haggling. Officer Tyler Cockrell mentioned he couldn’t dealer civil offers on anybody’s behalf — he was simply there to maintain the peace. As an alternative, he inspired the protesters to depart and try one other assembly with the varied events after the day’s commotion.

“It might have labored,” he mentioned. 

San Diego Unified Leaves Hundreds of thousands on the Desk

San Diego Unified colleges left more than $4 million on the table last year that might have gone to provides and extra, in line with a doc obtained by VOSD.

The unspent funds have been categorised as Title I cash, which comes from the federal authorities and is used to assist colleges with increased concentrations of poverty. The cash typically goes to crucial positions like college counselors or after-school tutors. It could additionally go to provides. 

The cash doesn’t precisely disappear when colleges don’t spend it, studies Will Huntsberry, however colleges utterly lose autonomy over the way it’s used.

Click here to read more and see which schools left money unspent.

Picture of the Week 

From Adriana Heldiz: I lately had the chance to go to the San Onofre Nuclear Producing Station with VOSD’s Atmosphere Reporter MacKenzie Elmer.

Earlier than I start, I wish to begin off by saying that on our drive up there, MacKenzie mentioned, “It’s at all times been my dream to go to a nuclear energy plant.”

What a nerd.

Some of essentially the most surprising photographs ended up being the perfect. Take for example my choose for the newest Picture of the Week. I might’ve chosen a daily picture displaying the 2 iconic domes, however as a substitute I selected one other that exhibits depth. The picture above exhibits rubble from the dismantling of the facility plant. I layered that pile of rocks with one of the domes within the background. 

This accomplishes two issues: San Onofre is seen from a brand new and artistic perspective. And it tells the story of what the long run holds for the positioning. 

Click here to read this week’s Environment Report to study extra about San Onofre’s 3.6 million kilos of nuclear waste.

In Different Information

This Morning Report was written by Andrew Keatts, Jesse Marx, Megan Wooden, Adriana Heldiz and MacKeznie Elmer.