Encinitas Voters Approve Sand Tax

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 5, 2008 at 10:45 AM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

Voters in Encinitas approved a tax on short-term vacation rentals. The money would pay for projects to put sand back on the city's beaches. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has more on Propositio

Voters in Encinitas approved a tax on short-term vacation rentals. The money would pay for projects to put sand back on the city's beaches. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has more on Proposition K.

Hotels and motels in Encinitas now pay a 10 percent tax, with 2 percent going to sand replenishment.

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Prop. K now extends that two-percent tax to vacation home rentals of 30 days or less.

Steve Aceti with the California Coastal Coalition says the money will be used to pay Encinitas' share of future projects.

Aceti: Whether it's SANDAG doing a regional project or the state doing a state project, or the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doing a state-federal partnership, the city will also have to pay some money.

Aceti says the tax could raise up to $200,000 a year for sand projects.

He says adding sand to the beaches is critical for the city's tourist economy.

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Opponents say the room tax is unfair to property owners and vacation renters.

They say it could discourage tourism.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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