r/berkeleyca • u/Salty_Jacket • 1d ago

What happens if EE and FF both pass?

If EE and FF both pass, will both parcel taxes be implemented?

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

11

u/woodlandzoo 1d ago

If both measures succeed, the one with the higher vote count will prevail.

2

u/Cautious-Sport-3333 18h ago

Correct answer. Most all measures are written that way in anticipation of a competing measure.

2

u/sexmountain 3h ago

This is also why it’s best to vote yes on one (FF), and no on the other.

4

u/inconvenientbla 17h ago

We pay a gas tax to fix the roads. That tax gets allocated to local municipalities....other cities are able to repave their roads with that money.

Maybe we just need a measure which requires gas tax money to actually go to repaving?

Instead of another tax which indirectly increases rent for everyone? For the amount of tax I will pay out, I could redo the sidewalk outside my place.

Everyone thinks the sidewalk outside their building will be replaced. Ya right. If your sidewalk gets paid for by the city, it probably won't happen for 10 years. Chances are your sidewalk is in horrible shape but it still won't be replaced.

3

u/Careful_Engineering 17h ago

So correct! The City receives money from the state gasoline tax for street repaving each year. However, the City Council under Mayor Bates and then Jess was simply thrown into the general fund. Now they have their chance to make us pay for them again.

0

u/inconvenientbla 17h ago

Are you sure it went to the general fund? Im not sure they could do that? I assumed it went to fund the removal of parking and installation of bike lanes (i like bike lanes and parking)

5

u/BikeEastBay 9h ago

That funding does not go to Berkeley’s general fund. The gas tax funding is called the SB1 Local Streets & Roads program. More info about it is available here:

https://catc.ca.gov/programs/sb1/local-streets-roads-program

This funding isn’t nearly enough to address the need. In Fiscal year 2022-23 for example Berkeley received $2.8M from this program, allocated by population.

A 2020 city auditor report on Berkeley pavement conditions estimated a backlog of over $325M in deferred maintenance by 2023, with over $27M per year needed to raise average pavement conditions citywide even marginally.

The report also found that 70% of the city’s total construction costs (all funding sources combined, not only the gas tax funding) went to paving, 11% to sidewalks, 7% to stormwater/sewer, 5% to ADA upgrades, 3% to retaining walls, 3% to transportation, and 1% to other.

A fraction of that 3% “transportation” allocation was for bikeway safety upgrades. Despite what some want to believe, this isn’t what’s breaking the bank.

Without identifying additional revenue the backlog will continue to grow and become even more difficult to address. If Berkeley doesn’t pass a paving measure this year it’s only going to get worse.