San Diego Election : Voters Face Two Taxing Choices on Aid for San Diego’s Premier Parks

With Balboa Park’s historic buildings sagging and Mission Bay Park’s beaches eroding into its oft-contaminated waters, San Diego leaders are asking residents to absorb more property taxes to pay for at least $73.9 million in improvements to the city’s two premier parks.

Voters will respond Nov. 3 when at least two-thirds of them must approve either Proposition B or Proposition C to allow the city to borrow the money needed to shore up two of the city’s most popular recreation spots.

History shows that their reply is often unkind. It has been 17 years since two-thirds of the electorate agreed to allow the city to sell general obligation bonds. Ten requests have failed since 1970.

Hoping to Buck Trend

Nevertheless, a campaign committee hoping to buck the trend has raised about $150,000 in the hope of persuading voters that the tourist and recreation meccas need attention now.

“There has just been general neglect. The money hasn’t been there in the past to provide for major restoration and preservation measures,” said Bob Wickers, campaign manager for Friends of the Parks, the campaign committee.

“I think San Diegans are the ones who use (the parks) more than tourists, more than visitors. A lot of the folks in San Diego are realizing they’re going to have to pay for the years they’ve been using the two parks,” Wickers said.

Opponents see it differently, arguing that parking fees should be charged to make tourists pay for part of the improvements and that the city should slowly fund the work out of its budget instead of spending as much as $93.5 million in borrowed money over the next six years.

“The city has allowed deterioration to happen in the parks that they shouldn’t have allowed,” said Jack Sanders, president of United Taxpayers of San Diego, a small citizens’ group. “Now they’re declaring that there’s a crisis in the parks and that they have to be helped out. It’s like the orphan who throws himself on the mercy of the court after killing both his parents.”

The Two Propositions

City voters will be asked to vote on both Proposition B, which seeks authority to borrow $93.5 million, and Proposition C, which asks for approval to borrow $73.9 million. The larger sum would pay for all the improvements listed under Proposition C plus another $19.6 million from a park improvement “wish list,” Wickers said. If both pass, Proposition B funding will be used.

Proposition C includes $31.5 million to renovate or improve Balboa Park buildings, such as the 72-year-old House of Hospitality, the House of Charm, the Museum of Man and the Old Globe Theater complex; $13 million to reclaim beachfront that has been eroding from Mission Bay shores at a rate of four to seven feet every year; and $12 million to install a new system to prevent sewage contamination of Mission Bay, along with other projects such as upgrades to restrooms, bike paths and pedestrians walkways.

Proposition B would fund the same work and add money for projects including improvements to Fiesta Island, a new municipal gymnasium near Balboa Park, and parking and circulation work in both parks.

Without the bonds, proponents argue, Mission Bay, which has been at least partially closed for 700 days since 1980, will continue to be shut down because of sewage contamination. And Balboa Park buildings such the House of Charm, which is mostly off-limits to the public, will remain that way for some time.

“I think we’re going to have a terrible time, particularly in Balboa Park, in keeping a lot of the buildings open,” said John Leppert, assistant to the city manager for Balboa and Mission Bay Parks. “If we don’t have a lot of the funds necessary to repair them or rebuild them, we really are up against it.

“In Mission Bay Park, we are going to have a much slower program in improving the water quality and we’re going to continue to lose shoreline,” he said.

‘Civic Treasures’

“It’s real simple,” said Paul Downey, spokesman for Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who has taken an active role in supporting the propositions. “They are two of our civic treasures. People love both Balboa and Mission Bay parks and they have fallen into a state of disrepair.”

Statistics support Downey’s contention. Fourteen million people used Mission Bay Park last year (three million of them to visit Sea World), and another 12 million visits were made to Balboa Park, according to city officials.

Polls taken by Friends of the Parks show improvements to historic buildings and upgrades in access for the handicapped and senior citizens are the Balboa Park projects that voters like most, Wickers said. In Mission Bay Park, sewage spill containment projects topped the list.

Curiously, a recent poll of 400 likely voters taken by the group showed that 72% would support Proposition B, the more expensive initiative, and 58% would support Proposition C. Wickers speculated that voters may have misunderstood the ballot items, thinking that Proposition C would be added to Proposition B.

Friends of the Parks, which claims endorsements by the City Council, the Sierra Club, the San Diego Taxpayers Assn. and the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, hopes to gather a total of $170,000 and spend about $100,000 of it on television advertisements. A likely voter will see one or both of the group’s spots five times before going to the polls, Wickers said.

Added Tax Obligation

Still, the committee has a daunting task ahead of it in persuading 66.7% of the voters to see things its way while asking them to pay more property taxes. Proposition B would add $23.80 per $100,000 of assessed property value to their yearly tax bill. Proposition C would tack on $18.80 per $100,000 of value.

Ron Pekarek, the landscape architect who prepared a proposed master plan for Balboa Park that is now under review by the city, also believes that people in outlying areas of the city do not support Balboa Park as much as they do Mission Bay Park.

“I’d like to say I’m optimistic, but I’m not,” Pekarek said. “My feeling is that I would hope that it would pass, but my intuition tells me that it doesn’t have the support it should have.”

Though he agrees that almost all the improvements are needed, Sanders argues that the tax increase evades the spirit of Proposition 13, which told city officials to fund services out of their budgets. He also favors the pay-as-you-go approach over heavy borrowing and argues that user fees would spread the costs to tourists and park users who live outside the city.

“People come in from Escondido and use the parks, don’t they? People come from National City and up from Tijuana to use the parks. If the city would start charging people some fees to use the parks, that would help to make the parks self-supporting,” he said.

Downey said that city residents who already support the park with their taxes would “recall the city council en masse” if asked to pay user fees. It would be difficult to separate them from county residents and tourists to charge user fees, he added.

“The point is that (the parks) are two of our free resources. We don’t have many free resources left in San Diego that a family of four or six or 10 can use for the cost of buying a couple hamburgers or hot dogs to throw on the grill.”