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The Oakland City Council voted Monday night to put three tax measures on the November ballot that if approved would help close the city’s budget gap, which is projected to reach $50 million next year.
The council voted in favor of giving voters the option of enacting a public safety parcel tax, cannabis tax and/or telephone tax when they vote in the November general election, City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente said.
The parcel tax measure would impose fees of up to $360 per year and raise up to $53 million annually if passed by voters. It was approved 5-3.
Supporters say the measure would help the city hire more police after 80 officers were recently laid off to help balance the city budget, but others say it will be difficult to get the two-thirds majority support needed to enact the proposed taxes.
The council also voted in favor of a measure that would tax cannabis dispensaries, production and cultivation by 5 percent and recreational use by 10 percent if cannabis is legalized at the state level.
Vice Mayor Jean Quan had proposed a measure that would tax cannabis at 2.5 percent, but the council voted in favor of the higher figure,
De La Fuente said.
A phone tax measure was also approved 5-2 that would impose a $1.99 fee annually if passed.
De La Fuente said he voted against all but the cannabis tax measure.
“We can’t continue to tax people when they are losing their homes,” he said before the meeting.
The council held a long public hearing with numerous speakers on the proposed measures last Thursday night, and public comment was permitted Monday as well.
The council voted at about 9:30 p.m., according to De La Fuente.
“There was plenty of discussion,” he said. “Now it’s going to be up to the voters.”
In order to have time to place any of the measures on the November ballot, the council needed act before the end of this week.
Bay City News contributed to this story.
Bay City News contributed to this story.
I agree – even the Pleasanton Ballistic (boys) is cheaper.
U5 – U7 $160.00
U8 – U9 $210.00
U10 – U19 $220.00
I would think the boys league has similar field usage fees, training and uniform costs.
My 4 kids played soccer in Pleasanton and the most we paid for any of them was $80 dollars per season. Granted that was about 8 or 9 years ago. It was about the time when Pleasanton brought in Boyd and his wife and decided to go bigtime. I believe at that time we lost the small town soccer mentality.
Question. Should out of town players get financial assistance to play for Pleasanton?
I completely agree. I am so frustrated by these fee hikes. And what bothers me most is that Rage doesn’t currently pay the city to rent out the fields nor do they pay the coaches so what — besides the uniforms and a slight fee for balls/cones — are we paying for?! The idea that they “potentially” might pay the city for field rental is ridiculous. Why don’t you raise the fee once you determine that!? I realize the idea with Rage is that you’re paying into the club but paying $500 for both of my kids to play city rec soccer is absurd. I am really disappointed in the organization for having increased the fees. And I’m grateful for this forum to express it! Please Rage, reconsider your stance on this!
My daughter has been in this league for 7 years now, and this is the first year where I’m actually having a hard time justifying paying these fees. We’ve had the same color uniforms for the last 3 or 4 years now, so them saying its costing more just doesn’t seem to make any sense.
We also do flight,which is supposed to give us an extra 5 hours of professional training for the extra cost we pay. Last year, the trainer looked to be a high school student and the girls learned NOTHING from that trainer.
I understand that prices go up but be honest about what your charging more for. We ARE the highest price league in the area. We have had the same colored uniforms for 3 to 4 years. These reasons don’t add up.
I have worked with RAGE for several years now and I may not agree with the rate increase I think I can help you understand a few things. Then you can take your complaints to the Board. First the program has the most girls recruited to college than any other program. It gets more national recognition than any other soccer program. To some people this is worth paying for. Your girls will get in front of more Colleges and work with some of the best soccer professionals in the area. All of this will increase the cost to participate. Lastly the added fees from the city that were not there before. Let’s face it girls soccer is bigger and better than boys soccer in Pleasanton and demand will drive price. Also, I do not think that out of town players should get assistance from the program.
Yeah…. Let’s waist some reporters time on discovering why RAGE rates went up. Nothing better to do right? Fees go up every where all the time. Do we hire a PI to figure out why milk costs more this week than last? If you do not like the fees play something else.
By the way RAGE had like 13 girls get signed to colleges last year alone. Foothill and Amador I am not sure. Ron, do you know?
What you are seeing is the Rage staff using the rec. program to increase revenues to spend on the competitive programs.
With the stated goal of making the club a nationally ranked club, the staff is focused on two things: 1) Winning major tournaments, 2) Having girls receive scholarships.
To do this, the club is recruiting top girls from San Ramon, Livermore, Castro Valley, Dublin, and other areas to allow them to complete against other clubs that recruit, i.e. Mustang.
Since many of these girls are being recruited by a number of clubs, Rage needs to keep the fees low, or offer scholarships to these recruits to entice them to come over with the intent of making the club nationally recognized.
So in summary, you need more money to make the top teams, made up of 5-10 Pleasanton girls and 5-10 free agents competitive and you can not raise their fees, so, you hit it to your largest revenue base, rec. soccer, and use that to generate the income you need for scholarships, renting all weather fields, paying for tournament fees for national tournaments, and adding additional paid trainers and coaches.
All of these expenses provide zero value for the rec. player, unless you value being able to say, “My daughter plays for Rage, the #20 ranked soccer club in the US.”
To me it is an expensive subsidy rec. is playing to say that.
I definitely glad I don’t live in Oakland. It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that siphoning a lot of additional money out of Oakland’s economy to restore the police force back to early 2010 levels (where crime *already* was completely out-of-control) will result in more people with financial hardships and guess what: more crime.
My estimate is that the Oakland police force needs to beefed up to about *four times* the size it was *before* the layoffs, in order to bring the city back from the brink. It’s truly sad to see a city that (from what I hear) was booming in the 1950’s only to find itself making a mad-dash towards anarchy in the 21st century.
“”We can’t continue to tax people when they are losing their homes,” he said before the meeting.”
At least someone in the Oakland City Government is using rational judgement.
Just … Say … NO! to new taxes.
I wonder where they think all this money wil come from…..not surprisingly they have turned to drugs to solve all their problems.