The Del Mar City Council received a brief update from the city’s Measure Q Citizen Advisory Committee, which monitors the revenue and expenditures from the Measure Q fund, during its April 21 meeting.
Measure Q is a 1% sales tax approved by Del Mar voters in 2016 for infrastructure projects such as the utility undergrounding project. Other Measure Q projects include the downtown streetscape project and Shores Park development.
All of the recent Measure Q spending authorized by the council was for the utility undergrounding project, which has faced escalating cost estimates and questions about how far Measure Q funds can stretch. Council have been considering options for financing.
“With some of the cost increases that have impacted Measure Q, we wanted to make sure that people understand what we do is make sure that whatever costs have been incurred are for projects that have been approved by the council and that those amounts have been properly budgeted and approved,” Alan Lonbom, a member of the Measure Q Citizen Oversight Committee said during the presentation.
The committee does not perform a formal audit, but in its conclusions confirmed that Measure Q spending had been approved by the council and was within budget.
Measure Q revenue was $2.9 million in 2019 before dropping to $2.3 million in each of the next two years during the Covid-19 pandemic. It rebounded to $3.3 million in 2022 and rose to $3.8 million at the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
Taxes from restaurants and hotels provided approximately 42% of the total revenue from Measure Q in the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to the presentation, followed by general consumer activity that generated about 23%.
