EL CAJON, Calif. — A sales tax increase is on the ballot in El Cajon. The candidates for El Cajon Mayor have different opinions on Measure P.
If passed, Measure P would bump El Cajon’s half-cent sales tax to 1 cent and generate an additional $12 million dollars per year.
"I've always been against taxes of any kind, so it was really unusual for me to agree to be in favor of this taxation," said Mayor Bill Wells.
He said the money would go towards hiring more police and fire personnel which is needed to address a rise in crime. It would also support homeless outreach and revitalizing parks.
Arnie Levine, who is challenging Wells, doesn't believe a tax increase is the way to go.
"With inflation it could jeopardize where people are just already making sacrifices," Levine said.
The city has an 8.25 percent sales tax. Measure P would bump it to 8.75 percent. El Cajon would then be tied with Chula Vista, National City and Del Mar as the cities with the highest sales tax in the county.
CBS 8 asked Mayor Bill Wells if there are any other alternatives to raising taxes.
"Reserves would be one way to do it but after a couple years we wouldn't be able to do that anymore. We'd have no resources. reserves are for a rainy day for emergencies," he said.
Levine said he thinks otherwise.
'Why would we raise the tax when we don't have fiscal responsibility," he said.
Measure P will have no effect on groceries and prescriptions because they’re not subject to sales tax.
Residents weigh in
Tonight we asked El Cajon residents their thoughts.
"One cent doesn't sound like too much, but I don't know how it would add up with everything," said Lauren Peterson.
Resident Monica Swarthout believes the funding could come from another source than a tax increase.
"I think there's a lot of money that's not being used correctly that could be going towards that. I'm all about more police officers or any kind of law enforcement, firefighters things like that," Swarthout said.
WATCH RELATED: Tuesday is last day to vote in statewide General Election
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET CBS 8:
ADD THE CBS8+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE Roku | Amazon Fire