Berkeleyside33%
Berkeley voters will decide on these 7 ballot measures in November 13%
By Hope Muñoz9%
7/24/2026, 6:37:43 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 29 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Pessimism Bias, and Appeal to Emotion, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 7.6% saturation with 124 hits. Analysis detected 1,343 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,637 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 29.5% and a BS Rank of 13% (19,140 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 87.40% of the article peer group.
Berkeley voters will decide on seven local ballot measures this November, including proposals to double the soda tax, raise parcel taxes to fund a new public bank and increase sales taxes to help balance the city’s budget deficit.
At the state level, Californians will decide on the usual array of ballot measures, among them a billionaire tax championed by progressives, voter ID requirements backed by Republicans and an $11 billion affordable housing bond.
Voters in five Bay Area counties will weigh in on a sales tax increase to fund struggling public transportation agencies.
But only Berkeley residents will vote on these measures by Nov.
3.
**On the 2026 Berkeley ballot**
* Sales tax increase addressing budget deficit
* $300M bond for city infrastructure
* Doubling Berkeley's soda tax
* Parcel tax to fund public bank
* Parcel tax to provide grants for performing arts groups
* Amendments to 2024's Measure BB
* Tweaks to election procedures
## **Sales tax increase addressing budget deficit **
To address part of Berkeley’s $30 million general fund deficit, city officials are asking voters to approve a half-percent sales tax increase, which could generate $9 to 10 million annually for the city’s general fund.
The increase would bring Berkeley’s sales tax rate to 10.75%.
The measure can pass with support from a simple majority of voters.
April polling commissioned by the city found 52% of Berkeley voters supported the increase.
City Council approved a budget last month that lays off workers, eliminates vacant positions and slashes several local programs, including a winter homeless shelter and “Mobile Crisis Team,” which sent mental health professionals to some emergency calls, to shrink the size of the deficit.
If the sales tax fails, officials have warned they could lay off employees in Berkeley’s police and fire departments, close the fire station on Marin Avenue in North Berkeley and reduce hours at recreation centers.
## **$300M bond for city infrastructure**
City leaders are also asking voters to approve a bond measure for local infrastructure totalling $300 million.
The city has identified 34 potential projects the bond could fund, including renovations to Berkeley's 911 dispatch center and building a sea wall to protect from rising sea levels at the marina’s South Cove.
The measure would increase property taxes by $44 for every $100,000 of a home’s assessed value.
It must win support from two-thirds of voters.
The April survey found 69% of voters initially said they supported the bond, but support fell to 64%, below the threshold for passing the measure, after voters heard statements supporting and opposing the new tax.
Respondents became increasingly concerned about tax burden, affordability and the amount of revenue measures expected on the ballot, pollster Lake Research Partners found.
## **Doubling Berkeley’s soda tax **
Berkeley was the first city in the country to pass a 1-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages in 2014, also known as the “soda tax.”
A decade later, voters overwhelmingly agreed to extend the levy.
Now supporters of the tax are asking residents to double it to 2 cents — though the measure could spark a challenge from the soda industry.
After the 2014 tax passed, similar measures started gaining popularity across Northern California.
The American Beverage Association responded by threatening to pursue a ballot initiative limiting local governments’ power to raise revenue through new taxes — a move soda tax proponents equated to holding the state hostage.
In a compromise, lawmakers agreed to impose a bill that implemented a 13-year ban on new local soda taxes and taxes for other groceries, though existing taxes like the one in Berkeley remained in place.
Proponents of the soda tax acknowledge the soda industry may sue if Berkeley voters adopt their measure, arguing that doubling the soda tax is the same as creating a new one.
But they contend the law would be on Berkeley’s side.
Santa Cruz voters approved a new soda tax in 2024, prompting a lawsuit from the American Beverage Association and other retailers.
A judge ruled last month that the state’s soda tax ban does not take away the authority of California charter cities such as Santa Cruz and Berkeley to enact sugary drink taxes.
“The argument was that charter cities are entitled to pass policies that protect the health of their citizens,” said soda tax advocate Holly Scheider.
The Berkeley soda tax measure appears likely to pass: 69% of survey-takers were in support, according to the April polling.
Still, the Santa Cruz ruling may be appealed, and there is no guarantee that soda companies will not target Berkeley's soda tax increase.
“The beverage companies are bullies, so they may sue anyway, we don’t know,” Scheider said.
According to the Citizens Initiative to Preserve and Strengthen Berkeley’s Soda Tax, funds will go to fighting health issues such as Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease, as well as clean water and healthy food access programs, and nutrition education.
## **Parcel tax to fund public bank**
A proposed parcel tax would provide seed funding to start a public bank.
Supporters say it would lend money to fund investments in affordable housing, small businesses and green energy and infrastructure.
Property owners would be charged 6 cents per square-foot of residential improvements — or $90 per year for the owner of a 1,500 square-foot home — and 9 cents per square-foot of commercial improvements.
That would generate $9.2 million per year, with annual adjustments based on inflation and cost of living, meaning the levy would rise.
The tax would end after six years.
Unlike typical banks, public banks do not make loans to individuals, nor do they have physical branches and ATMs.
Instead they loan to local financial institutions like community banks and credit unions, and specify how the money should be used.
The groups Public Bank East Bay and the Coalition to Keep Berkeley Money Local collected thousands of signatures to put the measure on the ballot.
A board of directors, which would be proposed by Public Bank East Bay and must be approved by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, would set the bank’s policy, according to Debbie Notkin of Public Bank East Bay.
Staff members would administer the loans, which could go to recipients in Berkeley or elsewhere in the East Bay.
The first and only public bank in the nation was established in 1919 and operates in North Dakota.
Since then, communities in Sacramento, New York City, Philadelphia and more have considered the idea, but have yet to go through with it.
## **Parcel tax to provide grants for performing arts groups**
Berkeley’s performing arts organizations are struggling to bounce back from the pandemic.
Several organizations have closed in recent years, including the Bay Area Children’s Theater, TheatreFirst and the California Jazz Conservatory’s degree program.
That’s why arts groups are asking voters to support a new parcel tax to generate money for their sector.
The tax would cost 7 cents per square foot of improvements, or $105 per year for a 1,500 square-foot home.
It is estimated to generate approximately $6.3 million annually and $84.8 million over the tax’s 12-year duration.
That money would be put into a special fund in the city treasury, according to the ordinance.
It can only be used to provide additional grant funding for Berkeley nonprofit performing arts organizations — colleges, for-profit businesses, individual artists, nonprofit organizations unrelated to performing arts and school districts are ineligible to apply.
## **Amendments to 2024's Measure BB**
Voters will decide on an ordinance that tweaks regulations from 2024’s Measure BB, a set of landlord-tenant rules endorsed by tenant advocates.
Key elements of the latest tenant measure include:
* Allowing the rent board to waive or reduce rent registration fees charged to nonprofits.
The 2024 measure extended rent board services to housing owned by nonprofits, and the board is required to charge those landlords fees of up to $344 per unit.
Affordable housing groups complained the new fees could cost some nonprofits hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
* Capping maximum rent increases for fully covered units at 10%.
Berkeley’s rent control law limits how much landlords can raise rents each year, but allows them to “bank” increases over multiple years.
This new rule would bar landlords from imposing banked increases of more than 10% in a year.
The provision is driven by concerns that tenants who have not had regular rent increases may get a new landlord willing to raise rents in large increments.
* More rights for tenant unions.
The measure would give tenants in smaller buildings the right to unionize regardless of whether their landlord uses a property management company, dropping the threshold from 10 units to five.
Properties with four or fewer units would be able to unionize if a property management company is in place.
The amendment also clarifies that if four or fewer units organize, the union remains valid even if a property management company no longer oversees it.
## **Tweaks to election procedures **
Another ballot measure would make several minor changes to election procedures.
Notably, it will reduce filing fees for council office candidates from $150 to $25, eliminate the option for candidates to submit signatures rather than pay the fee and remove the need for candidates to list their place of residence, birthplace, and taxpayer status.
It also increases the budget to administer Berkeley’s program providing public financing to certified election candidates, from $250,000 to $400,000.
Smaller updates include various changes to wording, dates and deadlines.
**Related stories**
* Berkeley voters to decide on sales tax hike, $300M infrastructure bond
* Campaign for tax to fund Berkeley arts groups says it has signatures needed to make 2026 ballot
* Measure Z: No sign of a ‘Soda War’ as Berkeley votes to extend tax on sugary drinks
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