Tax measures on ballots across Marin County show diverse tax burden for voters

by Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News April 28, 2026April 29, 2026

FILE: Stickers are given to voters and accompanying children who are learning about the official ballot process in San Rafael, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (George Alfaro/Bay City News)

MARIN COUNTY VOTERS FACE a wide range of local tax measures on the June 2 election ballot, but the burden is not evenly spread. Sales taxes spread the cost across consumers, including commuters and visiting vacationers, while parcel taxes fall directly on property owners. School parcel taxes stand out as the heaviest recurring charges in the county.

Measure J in Fairfax would raise the town’s sales tax from three-quarters of a cent to a cent per dollar with a simple majority of the vote. Estimated to generate $1.3 million annually, the funds would support general town services, public safety, emergency response and street work.

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Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.

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