Oakland's Measure E on parcel tax stirs up debate

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]And meanwhile in Oakland, the campaign for a new parcel tax is stirring up debate. Measure E promises to bring in $34 million to the city's budget to support emergency services, crime prevention, and more. But as John Ramos reports, some are worried that the city is not being forthcoming about where else the money could go.

[00:00:22]Oakland has suffered chronic budget deficits in recent years, and residents have voted repeatedly to raise their taxes to preserve public safety. Measure E is the latest initiative. Proponents say it will stabilize the city's finances. Opponents say they've heard it all before.

[00:00:44]Marcus Romero and Alberto Parro were out on their Saturday morning canvasing neighborhoods in Oakland to drum up support for Measure E. The initiative would put an additional $192 parcel tax on each property, ostensibly to support essential city services.

[00:01:01]Marcus says it's an important issue with the voters. they uh have already had issues with there not being enough essential services. So they're definitely uh it is important for them to continue the ones we have and even expand those. Uh so definitely the folks that we've been working with and our members are very supportive of of measure E.

[00:01:19]>> According to the ballot language, the funding would go to a whole host of services focusing on public safety. It's a important part of making sure that we address our 911 response times, that we keep our fire stations open, uh address our problem with illegal dumping, um and make sure we fund solutions for homelessness. So, >> and it is the city employee unions that have driven the push for Measure E. The president of the firefighters union says it will help keep fire stations open.

[00:01:49]Everyone's excited and passionate about Measure E because they recognize this will enable us to get out of the boom and bust cycle of the economy and be able to fund uh essential services with a stable source of income. We understand every dollar counts and these dollars are going to go specifically and only to essential services. But opponents say that's not necessarily true. In the ballot language written by the city's largest union, SEIU Local 1021, the words such as but not limited to appears when discussing the essential services the money could go to. The words such as but not limited to are included in this language. And that means that everything that's promised, whether it's more officers or fire stations or new trucks, what etc. It's not guaranteed. It's not binding. And so the council can choose whatever they want to. Lauren Taylor is a former Oakland council member. He says the same language was used 18 months ago in another successful tax initiative, Measure NN, which promised the money would go to build the police force up from 600 officers to at least 700. That never happened. And this time around, there was a lot more opposition to the idea of another tax hike. Marlene Saxs is an attorney who joined a lawsuit against Measure E, demanding public records to see if the city colluded with the unions to put the issue on the ballot as a so-called citizens initiative.

[00:03:12]>> And then lo and behold, the city did absolutely nothing at all to uh draft the measure or get it put on the ballot.

[00:03:21]instead kind of coincidentally uh the unions ended up SEIU Local 1021 ended up being the one that uh put together the parcel tax language and funded the petition gathering process.

[00:03:40]>> That matters because recent court rulings say tax initiatives that come from the people can pass with a simple majority rather than the twothirds vote needed for those generated by governments. Opponents of Measure E think think the tax hike is simply to avoid making any staff reductions or cuts to employee compensation, which Taylor says accounts for about 70% of all city spending.

[00:04:02]>> When the voters say, "Hey, we're not just going to keep giving you more allowance when you're not actually doing anything better or different." Then they're going to say, "All right, well, we need to do better with what we have."

[00:04:13]>> There were dire predictions about what would happen if Measure E didn't pass.

[00:04:17]But just in the last few weeks, Mayor Barbara Lee submitted a proposal that somehow balanced the budget without closing fire stations and without relying on measure E. The firefighters union president addressed that by saying, quote, "The projected budget versus actual budget are very different." End quote.

[00:04:36]The Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association is sponsoring a statewide proposition in November that would close the Citizens Initiative loophole for tax increases.

[00:04:48]Now, if that passes, again, that's a different thing in November. All new tax measures would require a twothirds vote for approval.