By Francine Maxwell / June 11, 2025 
Let’s stop pretending. San Diego’s City Council does not care about homeowners. If they did, they wouldn’t be nickel-and-diming property owners to death while hiding behind empty “equity” speeches.
We have the highest SDG&E rates in the county. Water rates are climbing. A stormwater fee is looming. And now they’re slapping a trash fee directly onto your property tax bill, buried like fine print — a lazy, cowardly move designed to avoid public accountability.
While working families struggle to keep their homes, the Council just passed yet another tenant ordinance, making it even harder for homeowners to manage their own properties. They’ve created a hostile, predatory environment for anyone trying to build generational wealth or own a home in this city.
This isn’t protecting renters. It’s punishing owners. It’s gutting the middle class. It’s driving longtime San Diegans out while pretending to be progressive.
City Hall loves to talk about creating paths to homeownership. But you don’t get there by suffocating the people who already own homes. You don’t balance your budget on the backs of homeowners with one trash fee, one water hike, one backdoor ordinance at a time.
And let’s be clear — attaching trash fees to property tax bills is one of the most reckless, dishonest moves this Council has made. No hearings, no separate vote, no transparency. Just another burden disguised as bureaucracy.
This Council isn’t interested in balance. They want easy headlines and performative policies at the expense of the people footing the bill for this city. And we see it. Every homeowner in this city sees it.
If San Diego leadership had any integrity left, they’d start scaling back bloated executive salaries, stop backdoor fees, and build housing policy that makes sense for everyone — not just the loudest group in the room.
But until then, let’s call it what it is: a city government hellbent on bleeding homeowners dry and lying to our faces about it.
Francine Maxwell is a community engagement specialist from Southeastern San Diego.
After attending many of the City Council Meetings, one thing is apparent to me. That which I would previously have thought to be UNTHINKABLE, is now my answer to what I am seeing with my own eyes.
I believe that we have officials in our mayors and our city council who absolutely have an agenda to have the ciitzens of this city, state and our nation at the teat of our government. As a Real Estate Broker for over 40 years, I can see that sadly, we have people in offices of power who say one thing and their actions clearly suggest something much different. How is it that we had flood warnings and and even flooding in SESD areas (many of which are lower income homes) PRIOR to the massive flood of Jan 22, 2024 and those waterways /storm canals which were designed to carry large amounts of water were filled with garbage and foilage. How is it that this was not taken care of until AFTER these folks and their homes were flooded? I also want to mention Lahaina in Hawaii.. How was that even possible to have happened in this day and age and what about Pacific Palisades and Eaton? I’m just so sorry to see our nation have so many citizens be impacted. I had no idea that we have people in the background who are funding many things that are working to destroy this once great nation of ours. Whoever sent out the marketing materials for Measure B Lied.. and unfortunately, I believe people FELL for it. A City Council with any sort of integrity would have said.. You know, this wasn’t really presented in the proper light – NO light at all was placed on HOW the billing would be implemented. They would have required it to go back to a full vote. However, thats not what occurred. Now, the bill will be against the property taxes. That isn’t an avenue that can be readily challenged. I have a real problem with not telling the truth in advertising and then, just being able to CHANGE anything they want… Carte Blanche! Add all of this up and to me, it translates to a government, city and state which really do not want PRIVATE PROPERTY OWNERSHIP. I believe there is an assault on Private Property Ownership rights and has been ever since March 2020. I encourage everyone to consider a bigger broader picture and then dig your heals in for a fight!
So what’s next? Changing the name to “fee” and then adding it on to our tax bill for a service we already pay for does not change it to a fee. I suggest that everyone who gets a tax bill with this fee on it send a bill to the Tax Assessor demanding a refund of the amount we were paying for trash service.
Amen.
This tax increase will be paid by anyone who lives in a 1-4 unit building. Let’s not pretend this just affects property owners.
Francine and Carole.. well said. Thank you.
The next headline should read, “Our government city and state do not want private property or home ownership.”
The developers will own the cities and the state. They are forging their way in doing so. If SB79 passes the assembly floor Newsom will sign it into law. It has already passed the state senate. If you live in an area that has “PLANNED” transit (2035-2050) that may never be built or is impossible to build, YOU qualify for the upzoning of 45-75’ high housing, even in the coastal zones, in your neighborhood. This is for all cities in California, including charter cities. Sacramento will have full reign with ministerial approval (no accountability or transparency or public input on projects). You just need to have or PLAN for a bus stop 1/2 mile away. This is ludicrous, but it is chugging down the line,
It is all about the money. San Diego has a deficit, California has a deficit, MTS has a deficit.!simple math. An apartment complex brings in approximately 9 times the property tax revenue than the same acreage of a single family resident.
IF SB79 states it is only for existing major hub areas, it will fully accommodate the housing mandate it states it is trying to accomplish. Get rid of the “Planned and unfunded” language for bus stops.
Please write and call your state assembly office and voice your objection to SB79.
All of our voices need to be heard!
Does putting it on the tax bill mean that the property can be foreclosed on if you don’t pay the trash fee?
Nostalgic, yes, it means they can place a lien on a property without any review or chance to fight it. Once there’s a lien, the city OR your mortgage lender can begin foreclosure. So disputing the bill means first getting your lender to agree you can dispute charges that are likely more than six months old, then getting the city to listen and agree, along with notifying the lender, the county tax assessor and mortgage servicing company. Financially, for less than several thousand dollars, you’re best bet is going to be paying the fees. Sounds like extortion, right?