1. The categories
Grouped by who levies the charge. "Approval" is the vote needed to create or raise it. "Spending authority" is how tightly the money is tied down once collected.
| Category | Based on | Approval | Council spending authority | Berkeley examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Berkeley levies | ||||
| General tax | Varies (sales, transfers, utility use, gross receipts) | Majority general election only | Unrestricted — General Fund. Ballot "purpose" language is advisory only. | UUT, transfer tax (Measure P), business license, TOT, soda tax, TNC tax, 2026 sales-tax proposal |
| Special tax (parcel tax) | Per sq ft or per parcel — not value | 2/3 | Restricted to stated purpose; dedicated fund; annual escalator set by ordinance. | Library, Parks, Measure GG, FF 2020, Paramedic, Measure E, Safe Streets FF 2024, Measure X |
| GO bond levy | % of assessed value, above the 1% cap | 2/3 | Only debt service on the bond; proceeds limited to ballot project list; citizens' oversight. | T1, Measure O, Measure M, G/S/I refunding, 2008 FF library |
| Mello-Roos (CFD) | Special tax on parcels inside a district, usually to service district bonds | 2/3 of district voters or landowners | Restricted to district facilities/services. No benefit-proportionality test. | None citywide; EBRPD CFD line on the bill is the regional case |
| Benefit assessment | Parcel's share of measured special benefit (engineer's report) | Owner ballot weighted protest, Prop 218 | Restricted to the district's improvements/services. | Street lighting districts 1982-1 and 2018; Downtown, Telegraph, Elmwood BIDs |
| Fee / property-related charge | Cost of service — cannot exceed cost (Prop 26) | Council after majority-protest hearing | Enterprise or dedicated fund; cost recovery only. | Sewer, refuse, clean stormwater, marina, parking |
| Levied by other governments on the same bill (city has no control) | ||||
| Base 1% levy | Assessed value (Prop 13; grows ≤2%/yr until sale) | Constitutional | City's share (roughly a third of the 1%) is unrestricted General Fund. Rest goes to county, schools, districts by AB 8 formula. | Berkeley TRA 13-000 |
| School bonds & parcel taxes | AV (bonds) or per sq ft (parcel) | 55% bonds 2/3 parcel taxes | BUSD board only; restricted to measure purpose. | BSEP (Measure H 2024), BERRA, school safety, BUSD GO bonds |
| Special districts | AV bonds, parcel charges, flat fees | Each district's own voters/board | Each board spends its own revenue; council has no say. | EBMUD, AC Transit, BART, Peralta, EBRPD, mosquito/vector, county GO bond |
Exception to watch: since the Upland line of cases, a special tax placed on the ballot by citizen petition (not by council) may pass with a simple majority. Berkeley has: the 2024 Safe Streets tax (Measure FF) was a citizen-initiative special parcel tax that passed with 60.8%, and Measures Y (arts) and Z (public bank) on the November 2026 ballot take the same route.
2. How the Finance Director sets 14 rates every June
Two different engines, both submitted under the Finance Director's name, all adopted on the consent calendar. Figures shown are from the FY2027 staff reports (June 16 and June 30, 2026).
Engine 1 — the 8 per-square-foot parcel taxes (escalator)
1. Pull two indicesCalifornia per-capita personal income growth (Dept. of Finance, May) and San Francisco Bay Area April CPI.
FY27: 4.950% vs 3.7975%
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2. Take the greaterVoters authorized "the greater of." Council may choose the lower figure or no increase; it never has.
→ 4.950%
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3. Multiply last year's rateCompounds on the prior-year rate, not the original ballot base.
Library: 29.80¢ × 1.0495 = 31.28¢
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4. Write the reportShow the cost on a 1,900 sq ft "average" home; state revenue forgone if CPI-only or no increase.
Library: −$324K / −$1.39M
Engine 2 — the 5 ad valorem GO bond levies (debt-service solve)
1. Sum debt dueMarch 1 + September 1 payments on every series, including any new issue planned for the year.
T1: Series A + B + new 2026 C
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2. Add cushion, subtract surplusPlus a 5% delinquency reserve, minus whatever is left in the bond fund from over-collection.
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3. Divide by estimated AVSecured + unsecured + utility rolls. County finals arrive in August, so preliminary values are used.
T1: $4.4M ÷ AV ≈ 0.0140%
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4. Check the capCombined GO rate held at or under 0.0492% (T1 policy). Any over-collection is credited against the next year's levy.
FY27 combined: 0.0490%
Both engines converge
14 ordinances on one consent calendar (8,013–8,026-N.S. in FY27: eight per-square-foot special taxes, the large-nonprofit business-license charge, and five bond levies) — First reading mid-June, second reading two weeks later, all ayes, no discussion. The reports are boilerplate: the FY27 Library report still reads "FY 2026 tax of $0.3128," and the Measure M ordinance title says FY 2026.
→
Rates to the Alameda County AuditorPer-square-foot amounts go as direct charges by parcel; bond percentages join the composite rate for TRA 13-000. Bills mailed in October.
Calendar
MayApril CPI and DOF income factor published
Early JuneStaff reports posted; budget adoption in the same window
Mid-JuneFirst reading (FY27: June 16)
Late JuneSecond reading, adopted (FY27: June 30)
~Aug 10Rates and direct charges filed with the county
Oct → Dec 10 / Apr 10Bills mailed; installments due
Why it matters: the parcel-tax stack on an 1,800 sq ft home is about $2,000 a year, and Engine 1 compounds it at roughly 5% annually — about $100 more each year with no vote and no debate. The bond levies, by contrast, fall as principal retires (2008 library bonds went from 0.0040% to 0.0035% this year) unless new series are issued.
3. Acronym map
Every abbreviation used above, plus the ones that show up on the county bill.
| Term | Meaning | Where it shows up |
|---|---|---|
| Legal framework | ||
| Prop 13 | 1978 constitutional amendment: 1% cap on ad valorem tax, assessed value grows ≤2%/yr until sale, 2/3 vote for special taxes | Base 1% levy; why parcel taxes are per sq ft |
| Prop 218 | 1996 "Right to Vote on Taxes" Act: majority for general taxes, 2/3 for special taxes, owner ballots for assessments, protest hearings for property-related fees | Approval column |
| Prop 26 | 2010: anything not a fee tied to cost of service is a tax and needs a vote | Fee / property-related charge row |
| Prop 39 | 2000: school GO bonds pass at 55% instead of 2/3 | BUSD bonds |
| AB 8 | 1979 statute allocating the 1% levy among county, cities, schools, and districts | City's share of the 1% |
| Upland | Cal. Cannabis Coalition v. City of Upland (2017) and successors: citizen-initiative special taxes may pass by majority | Exception flag |
| BMC | Berkeley Municipal Code (Title 7 = taxes) | Each parcel tax's escalator language |
| Tax mechanics | ||
| Ad valorem | "According to value" — a tax computed as a % of assessed value | 1% levy; all GO bond levies |
| AV | Assessed value (Prop 13 basis, not market value) | Bond rate denominator |
| GO bond | General obligation bond — repaid by an ad valorem levy pledged with the city's full taxing power | T1, O, M, G/S/I, 2008 FF |
| CFD / Mello-Roos | Community Facilities District under the Mello-Roos Act of 1982 — a special tax district, usually bond-backed | EBRPD CFD line |
| BID | Business improvement district — a benefit assessment on commercial parcels | Downtown, Telegraph, Elmwood |
| TRA | Tax rate area — county code for a parcel's unique stack of overlapping jurisdictions (Berkeley core = 13-000) | Composite rate on the bill |
| CPI | Consumer Price Index (SF-Oakland-Hayward, April reading) | Escalator option A |
| DOF / PIG | California Dept. of Finance per-capita personal income growth factor | Escalator option B (usually the larger) |
| Direct charge | A flat or per-sq-ft amount added to a parcel's bill outside the ad valorem rate | All 8 parcel taxes; stormwater; lighting |
| Secured / unsecured / utility roll | The three county assessment rolls: real property, personal/business property, state-assessed utilities | AV base for bond rates |
| City of Berkeley measures | ||
| Measure X (2024) | Library Relief Act of 2024 — additive library parcel tax | 6.297¢/sf |
| Measure AA (2024) | Four-year spending reauthorization for the 1980 Library tax (through FY28) | Library tax |
| Measure GG (2008) | Fire protection and emergency response parcel tax | 7.026¢/sf dwelling |
| Measure FF (2020) | Firefighting, EMS and wildfire prevention parcel tax | 13.633¢/sf |
| Measure FF (2024) | SAFE STREETS — street, sidewalk and traffic-safety parcel tax (same letter, different measure) | 17.842¢/sf dwelling |
| Measure FF (2008) | Branch library improvements GO bond (a third FF) | 0.0035% AV |
| Measure E (1980s) | Emergency services for the severely disabled parcel tax | 2.339¢/sf |
| Measures F & Y | Parks, trees and landscaping tax (F = original; Y 2024 = rate increase) | 27.83¢/sf |
| Paramedic tax | Emergency medical services parcel tax | 4.92¢/sf |
| Measure T1 (2016) | $100M infrastructure and facilities GO bond | 0.0140% AV |
| Measure O (2018) | $135M affordable housing GO bond | 0.0200% AV |
| Measure M (2012) | $30M streets and watershed GO bond | 0.0040% AV |
| Measures G/S/I | 1992/1996/2002 GO bonds, consolidated in the 2015 refunding | 0.0075% AV |
| Measure P (2018) | Transfer-tax increase on sales over $1.5M; homeless-services purpose is advisory | General tax example |
| Measure U1 (2016) | Business license tax increase on landlords of 5+ units; housing purpose advisory | General tax |
| UUT | Utility users tax | General tax |
| TOT | Transient occupancy (hotel) tax | General tax |
| TNC tax | Transportation network company (Uber/Lyft) per-trip user tax | General tax |
| Other jurisdictions on the bill | ||
| BUSD | Berkeley Unified School District | School bonds and parcel taxes |
| BSEP | Berkeley Schools Excellence Program — BUSD's main parcel tax (Measure H 2024) | $0.54/sf |
| BERRA | Berkeley Educator Recruitment and Retention Act (BUSD Measure E 2020) | 14.51¢/sf |
| EBMUD | East Bay Municipal Utility District (water and wastewater) | Regional flat charges |
| EBRPD | East Bay Regional Park District | AV bond + CFD charge |
| BART | Bay Area Rapid Transit District | AV bond |
| AC Transit | Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District | Flat parcel charge (Measure VV) |
| Peralta | Peralta Community College District | AV bond + flat parcel charge |
| CSA | County service area (e.g., paramedic CSA charge) | Flat charge |
| Sales-tax measures (not on the property bill; Berkeley's rate is 10.25% — the county base with no city add-on) | ||
| Measure W (2020) | Alameda County ½-cent general sales tax, 10 years. Passed 50.1%; litigated over whether 2/3 applied; upheld 2024. ~$810M accrued through June 2025; Board directed 80% to a homelessness "Home Together" fund, 20% to essential services. Berkeley receives allocations through county programs, not directly. | General tax (county); FY26 allocation $168.9M |
| Measure BB (2014) | Alameda County Transportation Commission 1-cent sales tax (extends/raises 2000 Measure B) for transit, streets, bike/ped; 30 years | Special tax; Berkeley's local-streets share is restricted |
| Measure A (2004) | Alameda County ½-cent essential health services tax, extended by Measure AA (2014) | Special tax; Highland/ACMC and clinics |
| 2026 Berkeley sales tax | Proposed city general sales-tax increase for the November 2026 ballot | Majority vote; General Fund (see Tax-Increase Estimator) |