{"id":348845,"date":"2026-06-06T00:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348845\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T00:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:56:08","slug":"voters-reject-an-oakland-tax-measure-for-the-first-time-in-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348845\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters reject an Oakland tax measure for the first time in 15 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 Oakland voters have rejected a proposed tax<\/a> that was expected to generate $34 million<\/a> in new yearly revenue, signaling the end to a long era of city leaders easily securing additional public money simply by asking for more.<\/p>\n

Measure E, a parcel tax that\u00a0 $192 to a single-family homeowner\u2019s yearly burden, had received only 44% voter approval after new election results released Friday. The ballot item was over 6,000 votes short of the majority required to pass.<\/p>\n

It is a stunning rebuke by voters of Oakland\u2019s political establishment, which relied on a familiar playbook in seeking to funnel the new revenue into the city\u2019s general purpose fund, which pays for worker salaries and day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n

And it ends a nearly 15-year streak of Oakland voters not outright rejecting any tax measure put before them. The last time city leaders failed to secure approval for a tax on the ballot was back in November 2011, during the mayoral administration of Jean Quan.<\/p>\n

Mayor Barbara Lee had campaigned robustly for Measure E, promising the revenue would help budget nearly two dozen additional police officer positions and replace outdated fire engines, among other causes.<\/p>\n

But a well-heeled opposition campaign ran online and televised advertisements questioning city leaders\u2019 ability to live up to their promises.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Barbara Lee listens during a press conference at police headquarters in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Monday, May 18, 2026. Three people died when a speeding pickup truck crashed into a crowd of people in East Oakland late Saturday, authorities said. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

City leaders had stoked anger in some political circles when they tapped revenue from Measure NN, a parcel tax approved by 70% of voters in 2024 that requires Oakland to budget 700 police officers. The city currently budgets only 678 officers, and just over 600 of those full-time positions are filled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just thought this (new) tax was ridiculous,\u201d said Gagan Biyani, whose political advocacy group, Empower Oakland, spent tens of thousands of dollars opposing Measure E. \u201cThe city just passed Measure NN two years ago. It\u2019s so disingenuous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alameda County election officials have now tallied over 244,000 votes, with several thousand more to count \u2014 including ballots mailed on election night that have not yet arrived.<\/p>\n

Historic trends of the county\u2019s results schedule make it unlikely, however, that Measure E has enough affirmative votes cast by Oaklanders to catch up.<\/p>\n

What makes Measure E\u2019s failure especially painful for city officials is that it required only a majority vote to pass, far lower than the ordinary two-thirds threshold.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s largest public labor unions had bankrolled petition-gathering efforts that led the measure to appear on the June ballot \u2014 allowing it to need fewer votes than if the Oakland City Council had voted to place it there.<\/p>\n

Still, the council had already budgeted for the additional revenue last year, leading Lee to establish a contingency budget proposal in the event that the measure failed. The council is expected to vote on Lee\u2019s new budget plan in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"NewlyNewly elected Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee arrives at her swearing-in ceremony at City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group<\/p>\n

To some, the outcome may be seen as a referendum on Lee\u2019s shortened tenure in office \u2014 a period of relative peace in Oakland following the economic hardships, rise in crime and political turmoil in the years immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Loren Taylor, the candidate who lost to the mayor in a special election last year, shrugged off the notion that Lee should be held to account for how voters decided.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t confuse the lack of trust that has built over time with a verdict on one person who\u2019s in office,\u201d said Taylor, who added of his potential mayoral candidacy this year: \u201cI\u2019m not thinking about the November election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee, meanwhile, has strongly intimated that she will seek re-election in November to a full term in office. Representatives for the mayor did not immediately provide comment on Measure E\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 Oakland voters have rejected a proposed tax that was expected to generate $34 million in new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1400,389,184,7,409,332,204,23387,181,23,205,100,143,145,406,144,13,385],"class_list":["post-348845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-2026-elections","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-city-politics","tag-east-bay","tag-election","tag-election-results","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-mayor","tag-oakland-news","tag-politics","tag-regional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}