A misleading campaign has begun for a San Diego ballot measure that would reverse a decade of CPI progress for workers and their families, including the Living Wage Ordinance.

City Councilmember Carl DeMaio, with funding from contractor groups, is collecting signatures for a November ballot initiative that would force privatization of city services and make San Diego the only city in the U.S. to ban Living Wage laws.

If passed, the ballot measure would amend the city charter to overturn and ban the Living Wage ordinance, which requires city contractors to pay at least $11 an hour with health benefits or $13.20 without.

It also would expand city contracting by imposing privatization of many public services, without protections for taxpayers or for service quality. It would force the City to put our nationally award-winning trash collection system, for example, up for bid by private contractors.

The draconian measure is cloaked in the misleading title “Competition and Transparency in City Contracting.” In truth, it would be a jackpot for irresponsible contractors and a crushing blow to San Diego’s low-wage and middle-class workers, just when revival of the local economy depends on putting more money in workers’ pockets.

Signature gatherers will be out hawking the petitions this weekend. DeMaio is paying $1.25 per signature to mislead voters and kill the Living Wage.