Oakland’s challenges are real, but before voters authorize another tax to fund public safety, they need assurances that City Hall is spending money responsibly and achieving results that benefit residents.

Over the past two decades, Oakland has layered tax upon tax via the ballot box in the name of preserving public safety, neighborhood services and civic stabilization. According to a May 2026 report by the nonprofit group Citizens Oakland, the city’s parcel tax burden alone “has grown 6x faster than inflation over 20 years.”

Yet the city has failed to keep many of the staffing and service promises attached to its spending measures. Residents now pay some of the highest local taxes in California and still have deteriorating public services, chronic budget instability and widespread frustration over basic city governance.

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On June 2, Oakland voters once again will have to make a difficult but familiar choice: add new taxes to address urgent needs or withhold support from a government many no longer trust to spend effectively.

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Measure E is a parcel tax, like many before it, with worthy goals. Funds are restricted in their use, mainly for improving 911 times, violence prevention, fire and emergency medical services, homelessness encampment mitigation and illegal dumping cleanup. These are priorities few residents would dispute. 

Supporters — which include Mayor Barbara Lee, the City Council and municipal labor unions (firefighters, nurses and service employees, among others) — describe Measure E as a modest annual parcel tax of $192 for single-family homes and $131 per multifamily unit. (The measure hits nonresidential properties much harder; at the same time, city officials say........

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