Stop Sales Tax on Real Estate

Supervisor Lawson-Remer Proposes "Transfer Tax"

Supervisor’s Push for Higher County Taxes Must Be Rejected

Mayor John Franklin | SDUT | 3-19-25

San Diego County homeowners could pay a hefty new tax if Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer gets her way. Buyers and sellers in some parts of the state pay 1.5% or even 5.5% of the sales price when buying or selling a home. At 1.5%, that’s $14,235 on the median priced home in San Diego County which is $949,000 as of January according to Realtor.com.

Lawson-Remer has proposed a county “transfer tax,” which is effectively a sales tax on real estate. Homeowners would pay the tax when buying and selling a property.

The proposal was one of two new taxes Lawson-Remer appears to want the county to place on the ballot for voters to consider. The other is a third attempt in the past decade to increase the countywide sales tax. Voters rejected the first two attempts.

If you think a transfer tax sounds unlikely, consider that San Diego County is one of only two major counties in the state without a county transfer tax. The state already imposes a tax $1.10 per $1,000 of sales price and the city of Los Angeles and the city and county of San Francisco recently adopted draconian transfer taxes that tax some properties at 5.5%.

Why is Lawson-Remer proposing multiple tax hikes? Because in recent years San Diego County’s budget has ballooned to $8.5 billion due to an alarming growth in county staffing to 20,471 personnel. Just five years ago, the county was running just fine with 2,518 fewer employees. Now, supervisors have run up a $138.5 million deficit.

If the government was able to get the job done with 13.1% fewer employees just five years ago, what has changed? Did the population grow? No. In fact, San Diego County has fewer residents today than it did in 2020.

We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.

One of the reasons I ran for public office was that Vista accrued deficits for seven years in a row before I was elected. I campaigned on a pledge to balance the budget and I am proud that under my leadership, we have adopted 10 years of balanced budgets. I also led the creation of a rainy day fund to ensure Vista could weather future recessions, without deficits or layoffs.

It’s pretty simple, don’t spend more than you have, and save some of it for when times are tough. Why is it that so many politicians can’t understand those simple concepts?

I’m a passionate opponent of higher taxes for two important reasons: First, our families work hard for what we earn and our families can’t overspend their budgets without consequences. Second, the government cannot be allowed to consume a greater percentage of the economy and our hard work each passing year. Income tax revenues increase when wages increase, sales tax revenues increase as the cost of goods and services increase, and property tax increases as property values increase. Government is receiving cost-of-living adjustments already. It doesn’t deserve a pay raise.

If we can’t agree that government is too large today, we should at least be able to agree that government is big enough. It shouldn’t be allowed to grow, unchecked relative to the size of the economy, placing an ever-greater affordability strain on working families.

It’s no wonder our kids and grandkids are fleeing California and San Diego County is losing population. Our own government is waging economic war on working families. We shouldn’t be competing with government to survive. The affordability crisis is real, and sales-tax and transfer tax hikes are regressive taxes that take more from working and middle-class families than they do from the top-half of income earners.

Rather than increasing transfer taxes, we should eliminate them altogether. Doing so would ease the financial burden on homebuyers and provide much-needed relief during this cost-of-living crisis. Raising taxes only adds to the struggles of working families at a time when living expenses are at historic highs.

San Diegans should ask themselves why the politicians who claim to care about housing affordability are the same ones making it more difficult to afford to live in San Diego County.

In Case You Missed It….Mayor John Franklin Joined Our Show Recently. Mayor Franklin currently serves the Vista community and San Diego conservatives at large. Click below to listen to this episode.

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