Oakland is still #1 – in highest taxes
Also: The racially-motivated aspects of Oakland’s taxation and service delivery; Rebecca Kaplan isn't qualified for the job; school administrator pay isn’t what’s straining OUSD’s budget.
The views expressed in our Letters column do not necessarily reflect the views of Oakland Report or its contributing authors. Letters may be edited for clarity, length, and conciseness.
Oakland is still #1 – in highest taxes
Re: Only 35% of Oakland’s rental housing is rent-controlled — and parcel taxes raise their rents, too, Feb. 10, 2026
I would love for you guys to compare Oakland’s property taxes to those of nearby cities like Berkeley and Richmond. On the one hand I’m sure the city government is plenty dysfunctional as you endlessly stress but on the other hand I feel like the property taxes we pay on our house (yeah, bought almost 30 years ago) are actually quite reasonable.
Brzuno (via Substack)
Oakland
Thank you for your comment, and for reading Oakland Report. Your suggestion to compare specifically to Berkeley and Richmond is interesting. In fact, we looked into it while researching for our investigative series on Oakland’s taxes. We also looked at Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Hayward and Fremont.
While these cities have some significant differences from each other, in particular their assessed property values (on which the state’s 1% baseline property taxes are based), the extra parcel taxes each city has layered on, and the estimated current market values, we found that Oakland still has the highest median property tax bill as a percentage of median estimated market value:
If you have read our “Broken Promises” investigative report on Oakland’s taxes, then you may have seen that Oakland’s special taxes have surged 379% over the past 20 years— over 6 times higher than inflation, and the highest in the state among comparable cities.
Meanwhile, service levels have either stagnated or decreased on several metrics – a form of government ‘shrinkflation.’
We also reported how Oakland’s property taxes hit deep East Oakland’s homes up to 48% harder than Rockridge’s, continuing a historic trend of disproportionately burdening East Oakland neighborhoods.
Thank you again for your comment; the discussion is appreciated.
Help us reach our goal of 10,000 subscribers
The racially-motivated aspects of Oakland’s taxation and service delivery
Re: Oakland taxes hit deep East Oakland’s homes up to 48% harder than Rockridge’s, Apr. 20
I’m sorry but this article seems to be designed to be inflammatory by pulling in a racial element. Why not turn this around and point out that the higher valued areas pay much more in property taxes but that the city, in the name of “equity” intentionally and openly focuses its services on the lower income areas?
One result of this is that there is effectively no police protection east of Highways 24, 13, and even Interstate 580. In addition, there are no polling places, no tree or street maintenance, etc.
So, please, try to be even handed.
Victor Gold
Oakland
Thank you for your message, and for reading Oakland Report. We appreciate your observations, and agree that public services should be delivered in a fair and even manner to every neighborhood in the city.
Unfortunately, the economic and demographic data around Oakland’s parcel taxes is clear: they result in disparate financial impacts that are highly correlated to past and present racial and economic disparities. The correlation, and the financial math, is remarkable.
See this related article:
The language in the Measure E parcel tax, which is the focus of this analysis, includes no provision for offsetting this disparity by delivering different levels of service in different neighborhoods. Nor do other parcel taxes such as Measure NN include any such provisions, as far as we can tell.
That does not necessarily mean that there is no disparity in practice, of course. The city of Oakland is notorious for saying one thing and doing another.
One of the main points of the article which the data leads to is this: despite Oakland’s stated commitment to resolving the government-sanctioned discriminatory practices of the past, the present city leadership appears to be perpetuating a very similar discriminatory practice through regressive taxation. I think we are in agreement on that point, and it appears to be valid from multiple perspectives.
Your observations about disparate services are notable, and perhaps will be subject to examination by Oakland Report in a future analysis, if our capacity allows. As a longtime reader you may know that we are a genuine shoestring operation!
Part 2: Racially motivated taxation and services
Re: Oakland taxes hit deep East Oakland’s homes up to 48% harder than Rockridge’s, Apr. 20
Thanks for taking the time to reply. If you want to pair my letter with your response I won’t be offended :)
On the taxation note, I think that one thing cities like Oakland forget about is that Proposition 13, the infamous proposition that has been blamed for so many things, came about because taxpayers were tired of the irrational, subjective, and arbitrary evaluation system.
That is not the same as saying that Prop 13 hasn’t had a lot of unintended consequences, but at least it is consistent.
One thing that Prop 13 did not address is the antics of cities like Oakland that have subverted the voters’ will time and again with virtually no consequences. I am sure that the latest parcel tax will be more of the same but this time it is just plain barefaced self-interest for us all to see.
Join us as a supporting member
Until we get a mayor AND council that are willing to truly clean house and stop playing games there is no alternative but to vote no every time a new parcel tax comes up, regardless of issues like proportionality and whether there is real merit to it.
I think that if the next proposition adopts what you seem to be urging, that being some kind of “equity” proportionality, not a flat tax, there will be an uproar.
Sure, the upper value homes are being proportionally taxed less relative to the home values, but in absolute terms they are contributing way more financially to a city that has essentially told them f*** off if they expect any basic services in return.
Victor Gold
Oakland
Victor, Thank you again for the discussion, and for the inspiration to look at service levels by neighborhoods.
Rebecca Kaplan is not qualified for the job
Re: There’s something about Rebecca, Apr. 27
Kaplan’s “gift” job position is the only way she could ever hope to have such a position. Her public record demonstrates that she is NOT qualified for the job and citizens should be up in arms over this administration’s blatant patronage of entitled public officials.
This is what happens when we elect and re-elect (this year) over-the-hill figureheads to leadership instead of new, energetic, out-of-the box thinkers who would work hard to attract major employers, innovatively solve longstanding crime and illegal dumping issues, and move this city beyond the political doldrums it has been mired in for decades.
Arthur Clark
Oakland
School administrator pay isn’t what’s straining OUSD’s budget
Re: The elephant in the classroom, Apr. 30
There was a Grand Jury report on the OUSD back about 2019 that said that the area-wide average was four teachers to every one administrator, but in Oakland it was one administrator for every 2.5 teachers. This has to be expensive. While I agree with the outsized role of the unions, there are more things to look at.
Mike Henn
Piedmont
Mike, thank you for your comment, which prompted us to check the current data. Using the latest official California Department of Education dataset (2024–25) and the same methodology the Grand Jury used in 2018-19:
OUSD is now at 1 administrator per 3.9 teachers, consistent with the area-wide average cited in the 2019 Grand Jury report.
Thank you again for your comment; the discussion (and inspiration to check the latest data) is appreciated.
Some of the best reporting in decades
Re: Broken Promises – Oakland’s Measure E, May 7
Good grief, this is some of the best reporting I’ve seen out of Oakland in decades. I suggest one of the primary reasons we are in this downward spiral is because Oaklanders don’t read this. Wear all the booster denial stuff (Oaklandish) you want. As Adlai Stevenson once famously said, “people get the kind of government they deserve.”
Roland De Wolk
Oakland
Roland, thank you for your kind words and for all your support.
Editors’ note
We recognize and love that Oakland is a complex city of nearly half a million people with so many unique lived experiences and perspectives. It’s what makes Oakland so beautiful. In that spirit, we don’t need to agree with every viewpoint we share in Letters. However, we also don’t have the time, space, or inclination to publish letters that are not helpful or that don’t meet our standards.
We appreciate readers’ comments on the topics we cover in Oakland Report, and observations about Oakland politics and governance in general. We welcome letters that are grounded in reason and evidence that can be rationally examined. We may respond to some letters. We may reject some letters. We may fact-check some letters. Other letters we may let speak for themselves. Write to us at letters@citizensoakland.org.
SUPPORT OUR NONPROFIT WORK
If you like our work, please consider donating. We are a volunteer-run, 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization based in beautiful Oakland, California.
Your donation of any amount helps us continue our work to produce articles like the ones our readers wrote about in this column.
Thank you.