Three San Diego County cities passed sales tax increases. Where is the $54 million going?

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — While city and county sales tax measures are failing, three cities have passed their one percent sales tax increases so far.

San Marcos, Lemon Grove and Escondido voters decided to increase their cities sales tax from 7.75% to 8.75%, joining a growing list of cities.

The mayors of Escondido and San Marcos both said this vote was a vote of confidence, and shows the residents trust their elected officials know how to properly handle their taxes.

"The citizens looked at how we have already taken care of their tax dollars," City of San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones said. "And we spend the money wisely."

Jones said the sales tax will bring in an estimated additional revenue of $20 million a year for the next 10 years and will go toward addressing the infrastructure improvements and public safety.

"Well I'm not always for taxes, one think I like about Measure Q is that it's locally controlled, so we'll have an oversight committee that's completely independent," Jones added.

The increased revenue will also help build and staff Fire Station 5 in San Marcos. While no location has been identified yet, Fire Chief Dan Barron for the City of San Marcos said they are looking into placing the new fire station in the northwest are of the city.

"It allows us to acquire fire station 5 and help pay for those salaries for those personnel that are going to be at that fire station and so adding an additional fire station in our growing community will absolutely help our response times," Barron added.

In Escondido, the one cent sales tax increase is anticipated to bring in an estimated $28-30 million a year for the next twenty years. Mayor Dane White said this will go toward homeless, public safety, infrastructure and city staffing.

"Escondido residents have been sort of at this very low level standard of living in the city, we have very few recreational opportunities, our parks need to be updated, so having this opportunity so having this opportunity to set the standard for the next 20 years going forward I think it's a statement," White said.

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"People trust us and they want to see their city thrive," White said.

In total, the three inland cities will bring in an additional estimated $54 million a year.

San Marcos' Measure Q is passing with a wide margin of 59% to 40% of the votes.

In Escondido, Measure I is passing with a wide margin of 60.1% yes to 39.8% no.

Lemon Grove's Measure T passed with the largest margin of 71% for the sales tax increase and 28.9% against it.

"The residents know we needed this revenue..." Lydia Romero, Lemon Grove's City Manager said. "They know this is their investment in their community."

Romero said she is thankful to the Lemon Grove voters and said the approximately $6 million in additional revenue each year will go toward repairing streets, aging infrastructures and keeping the city safe.

"I'm positive this small investment in Lemon Grove will return great results," Romero added.

This comes as other city and county tax increases failed – Measure G, a Sales Tax Increase for County Projects, so far is not passing by 51 to 48%, and counting. Plus, City of San Diego's sales tax increase, Measure E is so far not passing, by a tight margin of 50.89% to 49.11%.