The city estimates that its beaches lose 55,000 cubic yards of sand a year. Sand that used to reach the shoreline naturally no longer gets there because of coastal development, including railroad tracks, homes with sea walls and parking lots.

Hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfast inns in Encinitas already charge a 2 percent sand tax, which raised about $236,000 last fiscal year. Homes and duplexes offered as short-term rentals are exempt, however.

Proposition K would extend the tax to those smaller rental properties, raising an estimated $50,000 more per year, city officials calculate.

It needs 66.67 percent of the vote to pass and would take effect Jan. 1.

PROPOSITION K Ballot question: Shall an ordinance be approved to amend Section 3.12.030 of the Encinitas Municipal Code to require guests of short-term vacation rental units (less than 30 days) to pay 2 percent as a special transient occupancy tax to be used only for beach sand replenishment and stabilization projects (the same as the guests staying at Encinitas hotels and motels currently do) effective Jan. 1, 2009? Needed for passage: Two-thirds of votes cast. There are 36,748 registered voters.

A similar measure was on the ballot in June, but it failed by less than 2 percentage points. In a split vote after that election, the City Council decided to seek voter approval again after activists complained about the lack of a campaign or public outreach.

Mayor Jerome Stocks said Proposition K would “fix the loophole” in the tax rules.

Opponents, such as the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, consider it a new tax and point out that voters already rejected it.

While there is debate about how to pay for sand replenishment, most people agree that without it, waves would steadily wear down bluffs and move the coastline inward, said Steve Aceti, executive director of the Encinitas-based nonprofit California Coastal Coalition.

The city also depends on its beaches to help bring visitors to Encinitas, where they contribute to the local economy. Sand-starved beaches offer little allure.

So Encinitas buys sand each year for Moonlight Beach and pays a share of regional, state and federal sand replenishment projects.

Aceti and Bob Crane are co-chairing Citizens for Sand, which has raised $1,900 to support Proposition K, according to campaign finance disclosure forms. There is no formal opposition.

Of the nine City Council candidates, five support the measure: incumbents Jerome Stocks and James Bond and challengers Doug Long, Rachelle Collier and Anthony Brandenburg. Candidates opposed to Proposition K are Joseph Sheffo, Bob Nanninga and Harriet Seldin. Incumbent Maggie Houlihan, who supported the first ballot measure, opposed going to voters again so soon.

The June ballot also included another, successful tax measure that extended the city's 8 percent hotel tax to short-term rentals of single-family homes and duplexes. That measure required only a simple majority to pass because the money goes into the city's general fund. Special-purpose taxes, such as those for sand replenishment, require two-thirds support.

Tanya Mannes: (619) 498-6639; tanya.mannes@uniontrib.com