Chula Vista residents gave themselves the county’s highest sales tax Tuesday.
Measure A, which raises the sales tax from 8.25 percent to 8.75 percent, is poised to pass with 52 percent of the vote from all precincts.
The new tax rate will go into effect January 2019. The measure also requires the City Council to create a citizen oversight committee to make sure Measure A revenues are spent on hiring police officers and firefighters.
Mayor Mary Casillas Salas was pleased to see Measure A pass, but said she expected a wider victory margin.
“I felt that it went well,” she said. “I thought that we were going to get Measure A by a lot more votes, but we had such a low voter turnout. It was dismal.”
Although Measure A is a general tax – meaning money from the tax will go into the general fund – the mayor and City Council members promised to spend the money to hire public safety staffing because the police and fire departments have the lowest staffing levels per capita in the county.