San Diego
San Diego County Sheriff John Duffy announced his support Thursday for a bill that would take almost $5 million annually from city fine and bail forfeiture revenues and channel it into building and maintaining county jails and courts.
The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego) earlier this year, would require that all 18 cities in San Diego County give the county half of the money they collect in fines and bail forfeitures. Currently the county gets 6% to 25% of the fines and forfeitures that cities collect.
“The cities have an ability to raise funds that the county just doesn’t have, and for a long, long time, the cities have been getting an inequitable amount of money,” Duffy said.
Duffy noted that the bill stipulates that the money could go only to jail or court projects.
Another part of Stirling’s bill would establish an agency that would allow San Diegans to approve a sales tax increase of a half-cent with a simple majority, rather than the two-thirds majority required by Proposition 13.
Duffy said that numerous public works tax increase bills have been approved by a majority, but have not attained the two-thirds vote.
“I’m not going to support any ballot measures that require two-thirds--that’s like butting my head against the wall,” he said.
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