There’s a new push to raise San Diego’s sales tax. Here’s why backers think this one can pass.

A local construction union is proposing a San Diego sales tax increase that could have a better shot at passing than a failed 2024 measure, because it would restrict uses of the additional revenue mostly to infrastructure projects.

The union, Local 89 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LIUNA, believes a key reason voters narrowly rejected Measure E last year was that the ballot measure would have allowed city officials to spend the money on almost anything.

The new proposal would limit spending mostly to infrastructure projects like road construction, dams, fire stations and libraries — an approach the union says will be more popular with voters than giving City Hall a blank check.

Typically, restricting how revenue from a ballot measure can be spent would boost the approval threshold from a simple majority to a daunting two-thirds of voters — but that’s only if the measure is placed on the ballot by city officials.

Local 89 plans to keep the approval threshold a simple majority by making its effort a citizen’s measure. That will require the union to gather valid signatures from about 82,000 registered voters within the city limits.

Similar to Measure E, the new measure would raise the city’s sales tax rate by a full cent, from the lowest in the county at 7.75% to the highest at 8.75%.

Supporters point out that a number of other local cities have already raised their rate to that level — Chula Vista, Escondid...