By voting YES on Measure U, we will make Emeryville a Charter City, which will keep our town exactly the same, except for ONE THING - the ability to put in place a Property Transfer Tax when a property is sold/bought.
By voting YES on Measure V, we can collect from each property sale a one time tax -- $12.00/$1,000 value plus the current $1.10/$1,000 that is currently assessed and split with the county -- less than what Berkeley or Oakland collect, but significantly more than what we are currently allowed to collect as a General Law City. Most of the funds will come from commercial property sales. We are losing out on this revenue now. It will vary year to year, but we missed out on nearly $10 million over the past few years, not having this one time tax in place. Large developments sold can mean potential improvements to parks, streets, or other capital projects -- Bay Street recently changed hands as well as Novartis.
Please help Emeryville to maintain police and fire services, maintain our parks and think about how to pay for public works projects for our streets, sewers and other projects going forward. This money cannot be taken by Sacramento.
And the realtors are the ONLY organization opposing these two measures.
The Chamber of Commerce supports them; every council member supports them, every city council candidate supports them. You can support our town, too!
Don't let the outside lobbyists buy your vote or fool you. Wow. They sure do have a lot of money to spend on our little city. (More than $85,000 I heard.)
For more info and facts, go to the City Website and read up on Measure U and Measure V.
Also, I simply have to refute the inaccurate information on the mailer I got this week:
- Becoming a Charter City means it will be harder for citizens to put charter amendments on the ballot than it currently is for putting ballot initiatives on the ballot. Charter cities require 15% of voters' signatures when gathering, rather than a 10% of voters' signatures threshold in place as a general law city.
- The Council deliberately put a very narrow and simple charter together so that only one thing is changed by Measures U and V - the Real Property Transfer Tax. We think our current form of government is working nicely, and there is no need for salary increases for council members beyond what is allowed as a general law city. Excluding and legalizing businesses may require a charter amendment and any amendment would have to go to the voters. Now, as a general law city, the city council can do much more just by ordinance... Council members and residents can place ballot measures on the ballot now, it will only be harder when we are a charter city.
- Most residents will be completely unaffected by Measures U and V. About 66% of residents are renters. Only those who own property will pay a portion of the new Real Property Transfer Tax, and that will only be at the time a property is sold.
- If you do not own property in Emeryville, these measures will not impact you at all, except that your city will continue to be able to fund the valuable services and maintenance that you enjoy.
- More sales in terms of numbers might be residential in Emeryville, but in terms of the amount of the Real Property Transfer Taxes collected, most of the funds will be from the larger commercial properties, but only when they change hands. Most residential properties are lower in value than the commercial properties -- after all, about 75% of land use in Emeryville is commercial.
- These funds are critical if Emeryville is to keep our streets maintained, our police and fire first-rate, our parks nice and if we are to be able to pay for capital improvements. I know you value Emeryville for these reasons. We just need to find new ways to keep our standards and pay for improvements now that redevelopment is gone.
Thanks for your attention to this very important set of ballot measures. Vote YES on U and V!
