This proposed ballot measure aims to end San Diego’s new trash fees — for 2 years, anyway

A group of local business leaders filed paperwork Monday for a November ballot measure that could cancel for two years San Diego’s controversial new trash fee for single-family homes.

If a simple majority of city voters approve the measure, it would cancel the fee from July 2027 through June 2029 and worsen the city’s already bleak budget picture by reducing revenue by nearly $100 million a year.

The measure appears likely to appear on the ballot because the sponsors, the Lincoln Club Business League, plan to rely on the much lower threshold required under state law for measures repealing taxes and fees.

They must collect just over 21,000 valid signatures by early August — about one-quarter of the 82,000 signatures required to place most other city measures on the ballot.

The league says recent polling it has conducted shows extremely strong support for repealing the new trash fee, which opponents have criticized as a bait and switch.

Before voters considered the 2022 ballot measure that allowed the new fees, city officials had estimated they would ultimately be in the range of $23 to $29 per month, based on a relatively limited analysis.

A more thorough analysis conducted after voters had already approved levying the fees determined they needed to be much higher for the c...