In her first State of the County address Wednesday, Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer laid out an ambitious plan to bolster services for vulnerable residents and shield the county from looming federal cuts.
The Democrat and acting chair of the Board of Supervisors billed the address, given at the San Diego Natural History Museum, as a “response to a national crisis of governance.”
“Right now, the federal government is slashing programs we rely on for health care, housing, clean air and water, public safety and disease prevention,” Lawson-Remer said. “Every decision Washington makes impacts our ability to serve you.”
The county is already scrambling to address a $40 million hit to its public health programs. Funding for Medicaid, which has helped the county expand its behavioral health and substance-use treatment services, is also at risk after congressional Republicans proposed cutting $880 billion over the next 10 years.
Lawson-Remer said she will propose a local tax ballot measure to offset federal cuts and boost services.
“We can raise the money ourselves, right here at home,” she added, “not by waiting, or begging for D.C. to do its job, but by taking the wheel of our own destiny and steering our own San Diego County ship through this storm.”
This funding, she said, would help the county adhere to an ambitious plan, introduced last month, to double behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment slots from 16,000 to 32,000 by 2030.
Lawson-Remer described how the county has shifted its approach to behavioral health to what she called “care before crisis,” focusing on prevention and early intervention to alleviate pressure on hospitals, jails and emergency medical responders.
“Because when we wait, people spiral, and we all pay the price,” she said. “But when we meet people where they are and give them what they need, we save lives, we save money. We build a more humane system of care.”
Lawson-Remer had floated the idea of a ballot measure in February but pulled the discussion from the board’s agenda.
A supervisor-led tax increase would require the of two-thirds of county voters, but there are ways to structure a ballot measure so as to require only a majority vote, she said.
In her address, Lawson-Remer said such a measure could generate $1 billion a year.
“With the vote of the people, we can keep our families safe and healthy, no matter what happens in Washington,” she said.
In an interview this week, she said she was “open to all options” for raising money, such as a real estate transfer tax on high-value properties.
She mentioned such a transfer tax in her speech as a way to help pay for housing subsidies.
“A small transfer fee on sales of the top 1 percent of properties in San Diego County, paid only once, when these properties change hands, could help break the stranglehold of our housing crisis,” she said.
Lawson-Remer also said the county would create a managed care health insurance plan, “so every dollar is spent on patients, not enriching private equity investors and corporate executives.”
Several other California counties, including Los Angeles and Orange counties, offer public plans.
And she called on her fellow supervisors to an immediate change to the policy on how much cash the county holds in reserve — currently $100 million more than what fiscal experts recommend.
“That’s your money, public money, that’s collecting interest instead of saving lives,” she said.
Some of this money could go toward stopping raw sewage flows in the Tijuana River Valley that have sickened South County residents and forced beach closures, she said.
She also said she plans to introduce legislation to create a Consumer Financial Protection Division that would work in partnership with the district attorney’s office “to tackle price gouging, payday lending, delayed and denied health insurance claims and deceptive advertising.”
Such a move would come as the Trump istration targets the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for dismantling. Now led by the White House budget office leader, the bureau has in recent months had much of its work halted and has been undoing rules and dropping enforcement efforts.
Lawson-Remer highlighted the success of the county’s Immigrant Legal Defense Program, which she described as “more vital now than ever.”
The program, which has helped more than 2,500 people since its launch in 2021, guarantees an attorney to immigrants facing removal proceedings or deportation.
Lawson-Remer told the story of an Ethiopian man who fled to the U.S. after being arrested, beaten and tortured for exposing wrongdoing by a state-owned company in his hometown. With the help of the Legal Defense Program, he was granted asylum.
Throughout her speech, Lawson-Remer returned to the theme of people and movements that have fought for justice and fairness.
The U.S. didn’t always have fire codes, or food inspectors, or bans on widespread use of toxins like DDT, she said, or the agencies to enforce compliance.
“These are the watchdog institutions that we the people fought to create,” she said, “to protect us from corrupt politicians, unethical businesses and dangerous industries that were harming Americans.”
She framed her address with the story of civic leader Leon Williams, the first Black person elected to the San Diego City Council and, later, the Board of Supervisors. In his 20s, Williams challenged restrictions that kept people of color out of White neighborhoods.
Williams died last month at 102.
“We believe in a society that’s not every person for themself, but all of us standing together to defend and fight for our highest ideals,” she said. “The work will not be easy. Leon Williams knew that, and we know it too.”
