County B — health and safety sales tax

What a YES vote does

YES adds a half-cent sales tax across the county to fund health, family, sewage-cleanup and safety services until voters end it.

Official vote explanation, November 2026 edition; publication day unstated; retrieved 2026-10-05.

What a NO vote does

NO rejects this new countywide half-cent sales tax and its dedicated funding plan.

Official vote explanation, November 2026 edition; publication day unstated; retrieved 2026-10-05.

Cost and money

County Counsel estimates $400 million–$450 million in annual revenue.

The tax applies in incorporated cities and unincorporated areas; it has no automatic end date.

Official fiscal analysis, November 2026 edition; publication day unstated; retrieved 2026-10-05.

Who put it on the ballot

Initiative petition by Crystal Irving, Billy Tomasello and Courtney Baltiyskyy, filed May 4, 2026; Registrar certification dated May 25, 2026.

Registrar signed certification, 2026-05-25, visually verified; captured letter.

A rule that matters

The official summary labels 22.5% for sewage, 17.5% for safety, and 60% for health, child care and nutrition.

The full text caps the sewage category at 22.5%, requires at least 20% for sewage infrastructure subject to a later clean-water condition, and permits up to 1.5% for general administration. Tax collection and oversight costs are addressed separately. A twelve-member oversight committee includes the County Auditor and eleven Board appointees.

Official analysis and law, November 2026 edition; publication day unstated; retrieved 2026-10-05.

The salary restriction is narrower than the summary

The County Counsel summary broadly says County employee salaries are prohibited. The full ordinance §22.517(c) instead bars elected-official salaries and benefits, management/executive bonuses or pay increases, lobbying/public-relations contracts, and County administrative-office construction or renovation. §§22.519–22.520 permit specified staffing and administrative costs. The full ordinance's narrower language matters; do not describe this as a ban on all employee pay.

Full ordinance §§22.517 and 22.519, November edition, captured 2026-10-05.

Who is paying

Yes: Yes on B, San Diegans for Health and Safety, sponsored by nonprofit and labor organizations — filer 1485816

$2,408,266.01 reported for 2026 through captured filings: Form 460 year-to-date $2,298,266.01 through September 19, plus $110,000.00 in later Form 497 receipts. County official filing search, retrieved 2026-10-05. County sources use the local portal rather than Cal-Access.

Melvyn Katz’s $500,000 is loan proceeds, not a $500,000 outright gift. Calendar-year totals exclude earlier-cycle money.

The local portal exposes Form/type, period, filing date and transaction IDs, but a durable global filing-number URL was not exposed. These identifiers and saved exports locate each record; no global filing number was invented. Session PDF URLs expire.

No: PROSPERITY FOR SAN DIEGO WITH REBECCA JONES BALLOT MEASURE COMMITTEE - NO ON MEASURE B — filer 149070

This committee is controlled by Rebecca Jones. Before it was renamed No on Measure B, its January–May 2026 report shows spending both against the then-unnumbered county tax measure and in support of the statewide voter-ID initiative now on the ballot as Proposition 39. Spring 2026 receipts, including Feeney's $25,000 and Sudberry's $10,000, went to that two-purpose committee. Captured expenditure record, interim committee name, controlling officeholder.

$157,179.58 reported for 2026 through captured filings: Form 460 year-to-date $149,319.37 through September 19, plus $7,860.21 in later Form 497 receipts. County official filing search, retrieved 2026-10-05. County sources use the local portal rather than Cal-Access.

Fifth place is a three-way $10,000 tie: Thomas Sudberry (A-30), Affirmed Housing Group, Inc. (A-101, 2026-09-14) and WECA Good Government PAC (A-87, 2026-08-21), all in filing-5.xls / filing-21.xls.

The captured Form 460 and export show filer ID 149070; a fundraising page showed 1490707. Use the official filing identity as captured and flag the discrepancy for review.

The local portal exposes Form/type, period, filing date and transaction IDs, but a durable global filing-number URL was not exposed. These identifiers and saved exports locate each record; no global filing number was invented. Session PDF URLs expire.

Yes: Children First San Diego for Measure B, Sponsored by Heising-Simons Action Fund — filer 1483012

$461,619.00 captured itemized receipts (includes captured late-2025 receipts); complete summary total not verified. County official filing search, retrieved 2026-10-05. County sources use the local portal rather than Cal-Access.

The renamed committee is sponsored by Heising-Simons Action Fund. Its $350,000 transfer into the main Yes committee appears there too: do not add both committees as new outside money. Its late-2025 $450,000 funder receipt is included here to trace the upstream source.

The local portal exposes Form/type, period, filing date and transaction IDs, but a durable global filing-number URL was not exposed. These identifiers and saved exports locate each record; no global filing number was invented. Session PDF URLs expire.

Why: who benefits

Residents using the funded services and the organizations delivering them are the documented intended beneficiaries.

Health, child-care and labor sponsors have interests in funded services. Melvyn Katz's filing identifies Manpower Staffing as his employer. Financial support alone does not prove that any donor will receive a contract.

Official law and analysis, November 2026 edition; publication day unstated; retrieved 2026-10-05; committee/interest declarations and dated receipts above. Endorsement claims are identified as claims in the official arguments. The published arguments are the signers' opinions, not agency-verified findings.

Existing database, checked 2026-10-05: County of San Diego organization #10265. Funder rows above link the recorded find and resolve results, including exact entity IDs. Near matches were not merged; profiles and prior evidence are leads, not proof about this measure. Lookup custody.

Our view — opinion

What remains unknown

Money received after the captured filings, unfiled late receipts, unitemized donor detail, ultimate sources behind intermediaries, and a full reconciliation between SOS adjusted totals and gross committee receipts remain unknown. Donor rankings aggregate captured receipts within a committee; they do not rank ultimate wealth owners. Loans are identified separately where available.