SAN DIEGO — As San Diegans prepare to vote in today’s election, one of the most hotly-debated issues on the ballot remains Prop D, which would enact a temporary half-cent city sales-tax increase for up to five years — contingent on whether the city completes 10 financial reforms. Proponents of the measure see it as a temporary tax for a permanent solution, while critics say it does nothing to help curb wasteful spending in government and provides no assurances for preserving public safety budgets. “It’s a half-a-billion-dollar tax increase that has no guarantees of where the money will go,” said District 5 City Councilman Carl DeMaio, a vocal and high-profile opponent of Prop D. “It goes into the general fund. So there are no requirements of how it will be spent.” The proposition includes so-called conditions to the measure but none of those conditions are requirements of reform, DeMaio said. Rather, these are more process-oriented items like building a study, publishing a guide or soliciting bids, he added. “According to [San Diego Superior Court] Judge [David B.] Oberholtzer, Prop D is, at its very essence, just a tax. It’s also the largest tax increase ever proposed in the city of San Diego,” DeMaio said. However, District 6 City Councilwoman Donna Frye, an ardent Prop D proponent, said she has looked at a variety of options before settling on Prop D, such as only making reforms or only making cuts. But those alone won’t solve the problem, she said. “You can’t cut your way or reform your way out of this,” Frye said. “You need to have a combination of revenue and reform and cuts in order to make sure that we can get our structural deficit under control.” Frye said proponents of the measure include people with a lot of disparate views — business, labor, Chamber of Commerce, Democrats and Republicans. They have all come together, she said, to try to solve the city’s estimated $72 billion budget deficit and they believe this is a way to do it and ensure the public has a voice in it. “It’s getting down to critical mass now and a lot of people say those are scare tactics,” Frye said. “I’m not trying to scare anyone. I’m just trying to tell people the truth.” Frye said that without Prop D, she’s concerned vital city services will continue to diminish. Fire and police response will be slower, she said, and there will be a lower level of maintenance for the city’s libraries, recreation centers and parks. “Take the bathrooms at Mission Bay Park,” she said.”We had to reduce the hours of operation there.” Frye said she hopes people are tired of going through this financial crisis year after year and will realize that it’s worth the cost of about 30 cents a day for the average family to help solve the city’s problems. DeMaio countered that working families are already struggling to survive and this is the worst thing the city could do to them. “It hits working families in the middle of the worst economy we’ve seen in generations,” DeMaio said. “And by giving more money to city politicians, you will remove any pressure to enact spending reform such as pension reform, managed competition and other efficiencies we need to enact in the city’s budget.” DeMaio contends that if Prop D doesn’t pass, it will greatly improve the momentum for reform in city government, particularly pension reform and competitive bidding on the city’s services, two reforms that many taxpayers have asked for repeatedly but city politicians have failed to deliver on. “If we don’t get the money, then the only option is forcing leaders to reform wasteful spending,” he said. Frye said she understands the criticism of Prop D, but that a balanced approach is the only solution. “For some people, they would never, ever support sales tax or any tax for that matter — and I understand that,” Frye said. “But the reality is, right now we’re asking everybody to help. We want to make sure we have the kind of city where we have good levels of services and we can protect the public health and safety.”