The Oakland City Council voted this week to place a new parcel tax measure on the June ballot that would raise money for a wide range of city services, including police and fire.
Tuesday’s vote to put the “Oakland Public Safety, Cleanliness and Community Accountability Act of 2026” on the June 2 ballot was required by law after the Alameda County Registrar of Voters certified that proponents had gathered enough signatures.
“I just want to give a huge shout out and thank you to the near 30,000 registered Oakland voters that came out and chased us down on the street corners to say, ‘Yes, we want to keep Oakland firehouses open, we want core city services to be maintained, and we believe in Oakland,’” said Seth Olyer, president of the Oakland firefighter’s union, IAFF Local 55.
Firefighters and other city unions are backing the measure, which if passed by a majority of voters would raise $34 million annually for nine years for police and fire services, homelessness response programs and reducing illegal dumping, among other things.
Antoinette Blue, a 911 dispatcher and president of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, also told the City Council she supports the ballot measure.
“Right now, given the fact that we are living in World War III, at the very minimum, we need to ensure that the Oakland community has its most basic needs met,” Blue said.
To raise the money, it would establish a new parcel tax of $192 a year for single family homes, $131 for each residential unit on properties with multiple units, and $224 for each “single-family residential unit equivalent” within a commercial property.
Some seniors and very low-income households would be exempt from the tax, which would be monitored by a citizen’s oversight committee.