Although ballots were still being counted, voters appear to have rejected both a countywide half-cent sales tax hike and a full-cent increase in the city of San Diego, based on new vote totals.
With only around 20,000 ballots left to be processed, both the measures were falling far short of the majority needed to pass in the election totals posted Thursday evening.
Measure G, the proposed county hike that would generate an estimated $350 million a year for transportation projects, had narrowed the gap since last week, but was still trailing by 15,769 votes as of Thursday.
That margin has shrunk from the 41,081-vote deficit posted on election night and the 27,285-vote gap from last Friday — but it’s still wide enough that the measure would have to secure more than three-quarters of all estimated outstanding votes countywide to pass.
The measure now trails 50.57% to 49.43%, meaning the base sales tax rate for San Diego County will remain unchanged at 7.75%.
Measure E, the proposed city hike that would generate about $400 million a year for general expenses, had also narrowed the gap but was still trailing by 4,821 votes Thursday.
That’s closer than the 9,088-vote gap from results posted last Friday. The measure trails 50.42% to 49.58%.
San Diego is on track to have one of the lowest sales tax rates in the county, at 7.75%. It is joined by Encinitas and Santee — where two separate sales tax measures also appear to have failed — as well as Carlsbad, Poway and Coronado.
Meanwhile, Escondido, San Marcos and Lemon Grove have become the county’s first inland cities to raise their local sales tax rate a full cent higher than the county’s base rate.
