Oakland voters mustn’t let themselves be fooled once more by metropolis leaders’ insatiable urge for food for brand new taxes.
The town already imposes extra taxes than most cities within the Bay Space and California. Oakland property house owners pay 15 supplemental metropolis taxes. Ballots in each election yr since 2014 have contained new levies.
Now, within the upcoming April 15 particular election, the Metropolis Council is asking voters to extend the gross sales tax for 10 years by 0.5%. The ensuing 10.75% tax — 10.75 cents for each greenback of purchases — would match the highest price within the state. Of California’s 483 cities, solely six others have a complete tax that top.
Voters ought to reject Measure A. Backers say the cash would shield companies reminiscent of police, hearth safety, avenue upkeep, parks and libraries. However residents already pay particular taxes for all these companies.
Oakland voters ought to cease enabling their metropolis leaders’ habit to new taxes. It’s time for elected officers to plan for bringing spending consistent with revenues, moderately than attempting to spice up revenues to match uncontrolled spending.
There’s little doubt that Oakland faces a critical price range scarcity. Metropolis Administrator Jestin Johnson and Finance Director Erin Roseman forecast a $140 million annual structural deficit beginning subsequent fiscal yr for the town’s basic fund. That’s an ongoing income shortfall of roughly 15% of projected expenditures. Different restricted funds additionally face structural imbalances, Johnson and Roseman warned in a Feb. 20 memo.
Measure A, elevating about $30 million yearly, would solely be a small a part of any answer. Earlier than residents are requested to pay yet one more tax, they need to be proven how it could contribute to a viable plan to steadiness the town price range.
False poll arguments
Backers of the measure — together with main mayoral candidates Barbara Lee and Loren Taylor — falsely declare in poll arguments that Measure A is a part of a “comprehensive financial plan” for righting the town’s price range.
Truly, there isn’t a such plan. There’s not even a public accounting for Johnson and Roseman’s calculation of the $140 million structural deficit. We all know as a result of we requested repeatedly for greater than two weeks and had been lastly instructed via a spokesperson that it wasn’t out there. The dearth of transparency is appalling.
Backers argue that Measure A gross sales tax expenditures — which may very well be used for any objective — would pay for extra cops, maintain hearth stations open, repair streets and supply clear parks and secure libraries.
Protected libraries? Property house owners already pay two separate taxes, accepted by voters in 2004 and 2018 and totaling $225 yearly, only for libraries.
Parks? A 2020 voter-approved measure levies a $182 annual property tax primarily for parks.
Avenue repairs? Below poll measures accepted in 2016 and 2022, property house owners pay about $27 for each $100,000 of assessed worth of their properties to cowl the price of bonds for avenue repairs. That tax price will maintain rising as the town points extra bonds.
Extra cops? Lower than 4 months in the past, voters accepted Measure NN, which elevated the town’s public security tax for police and hearth companies to $198 for a single-family house.
A lure of Measure NN was a promise to extend the minimal variety of sworn officers within the metropolis’s badly understaffed Police Division from 678 to 700. However earlier than the ballots had been even forged, Metropolis Council members had declared a fiscal emergency, enabling them to decrease the goal to 600 officers.
Regardless of the brand new revenues accepted by voters, the council is successfully slowly defunding the police by not changing officers who retire or go away for different causes. As of March 7, there have been 681 crammed officer positions, in accordance with the town, with the quantity declining with every departure.
All instructed, along with the bottom property tax of 1% of assessed worth, and supplemental taxes levied by colleges and regional park and transportation districts, Oakland property house owners additionally pay about $2,000 yearly for the 15 supplemental taxes for metropolis companies.
Then, when it comes time to promote a home, the client and vendor break up the town switch tax, which works out to $16,100 on a $1 million sale — nearly all of which matches to the town.
Piling on
Now metropolis leaders wish to pile on with a gross sales tax. The town at the moment doesn’t have its personal gross sales tax levy. The tax within the metropolis is at the moment 10.25%. That’s comprised of a statewide price of seven.25% — of which the state retains 6%, 0.25% goes to county transportation funds, and 1% normally goes to cities — and Alameda County’s addition of three%, the best for any California county.
Measure A would add one other 0.5% for Oakland, bringing the full to 10.75% — and making the town much more costly to reside in. In California, gross sales tax applies to purchases of tangible private property. Prescription medicines and most groceries are exempt. Nonetheless, gross sales tax is regressive, disproportionately impacting those that can least afford it.
The ten.75% price would add $107.50 to the value of a $1,000 tv set, or $4,300 to a $40,000 automobile. The six different California cities with such a excessive gross sales tax — Alameda, Albany, Hayward, Newark, San Leandro and Union Metropolis — are all in Alameda County.
Maybe it could be justified in Oakland if the town didn’t already levy particular property taxes for most of the identical companies that the gross sales tax is meant to cowl. And maybe the record-high gross sales tax could be justified if it had been a part of a binding plan to resolve the town’s fiscal disaster.
However, proper now, Measure A is simply one other tax seize. Voters ought to reject it.
