Alameda County treasurer Henry Levy backed away from his definitive 'lower tax rates' claim about the Oakland Measure E parcel tax in the county's official Voter Information Guide.
WOW, this is bad. Thank you Oakland Report. So I read this as either:
A) Levy did not do research on whether this was true before agreeing to endorse, or
B) the Yes on E campaign is using his face + a quote in a misleading way and he doesn't want to "out" them
Either is extremely alarming and I think Oaklanders need to send a strong signal to our electeds that this isn't going to cut it anymore.
Also, since Levy mentioned that he would create a blog post (as of email 10 days ago), I went to his blog/website, and don't see anything posted since Dec 2025, unless I'm missing something.
Even assuming the Police and Fire Retirement tax is expiring in the next year, Levy's statement is still false. His statement says "YES on E" will do various things, "while lowering tax rates for a majority of homeowners." He implies a causal relationship between the passage of Measure E and a lower tax rate. Those two things are completely unrelated. Our tax rates will lower because of the expiration of the old PFRS tax. And they'll be a lot lower if Measure E fails to pass.
When I first read Hank's endorsement, I thought it strange that the CPA we elected to collect our taxes would make an unsubstantiated statement like that. I can understand how CM Unger can get away with declaring in a mailer I received last week that E will "stabilize" our City because years ago, when Marlene Sacks sued Oakland over violating the promises of elected officials for a parcel tax, the judge effectively ruled there are no "truth in lending laws" for tax laws: voters cannot rely on what elected officials tell them.
Interesting. I went to his blog and his last post is from December 2025 so it looks like he hasn't gotten around to correcting his error in his blog as he states in the correspondence. That December 2025 post is a whopper btw, explaining how Berkeley taxpayers’ property tax went up astronomically (an average of 13%) because of two measures including a new library tax. I noticed that too. Berkeley property owners pay the highest rate in all of Alameda with 29 special assessments. Berkeley is out of control, but the local media is silent about it. I appreciate the Oakland Report shedding light on the out of control local city governments.
WOW, this is bad. Thank you Oakland Report. So I read this as either:
A) Levy did not do research on whether this was true before agreeing to endorse, or
B) the Yes on E campaign is using his face + a quote in a misleading way and he doesn't want to "out" them
Either is extremely alarming and I think Oaklanders need to send a strong signal to our electeds that this isn't going to cut it anymore.
Also, since Levy mentioned that he would create a blog post (as of email 10 days ago), I went to his blog/website, and don't see anything posted since Dec 2025, unless I'm missing something.
https://treasurer.acgov.org/treasurer-blog/
Perhaps Hank should put out a public clarification and get ahead of the media frenzy that this admission deserves? @Hank?
Even assuming the Police and Fire Retirement tax is expiring in the next year, Levy's statement is still false. His statement says "YES on E" will do various things, "while lowering tax rates for a majority of homeowners." He implies a causal relationship between the passage of Measure E and a lower tax rate. Those two things are completely unrelated. Our tax rates will lower because of the expiration of the old PFRS tax. And they'll be a lot lower if Measure E fails to pass.
When I first read Hank's endorsement, I thought it strange that the CPA we elected to collect our taxes would make an unsubstantiated statement like that. I can understand how CM Unger can get away with declaring in a mailer I received last week that E will "stabilize" our City because years ago, when Marlene Sacks sued Oakland over violating the promises of elected officials for a parcel tax, the judge effectively ruled there are no "truth in lending laws" for tax laws: voters cannot rely on what elected officials tell them.
Interesting. I went to his blog and his last post is from December 2025 so it looks like he hasn't gotten around to correcting his error in his blog as he states in the correspondence. That December 2025 post is a whopper btw, explaining how Berkeley taxpayers’ property tax went up astronomically (an average of 13%) because of two measures including a new library tax. I noticed that too. Berkeley property owners pay the highest rate in all of Alameda with 29 special assessments. Berkeley is out of control, but the local media is silent about it. I appreciate the Oakland Report shedding light on the out of control local city governments.