Cities push county for Measure W funds to tackle housing, homelessness
Mayors urge Alameda County to honor voter intent and allocate most or all of $700 million in unspent sales tax revenue toward affordable housing and homelessness solutions
☕️MORNING BUZZ
—Roughly $150 million a year in additional sales tax revenues has been piling up unallocated since 2021. On Tuesday afternoon, city officials from across Alameda County will demand their “fair share” of the pot of money containing about $700 million, while county officials will make their own case for re-routing some of the largess to the general fund and specific programs.
Mayors across the Alameda County have been lobbying county officials for several months to allocate all or a significant portion of the unallocated proceeds from Measure W to local governments.
City officials contend Measure W, a half-cent sales tax increase narrowly approved by voters countywide in November 2020, was pitched to voters as a solution for beginning to solve the region’s affordable housing and homelessness problems.
County officials don’t discount the city’s argument, but say the language in Measure W clearly states it was a general purpose measure, meaning additional tax revenue can be used for any reason.
There appears to be some hope for city leaders.
Earlier this month, Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas acknowledged that voters believed Measure W’s intent was to help alleviate the county’s housing and homelessness issues.
Bas said she would support allocating 90 percent of Measure W proceeds to the twin vexing issues. Supervisor Elisa Márquez expressed similar sentiment earlier this month.
A letter signed by every mayor in Alameda County and sent to the Board of Supervisors last week suggested a compromise is at hand for about $400 million to be allocated to local cities for housing and homelessness. The amount would be about two-thirds of the total cache of money.
The mayors, though, maintain that 100 percent of the money go to housing and homelessness.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, Supervisor Lena Tam also recognize the need for using Measure W for housing and homelessness, but also express worry about the uncertainty emanating from the federal government.
“Please bear in mind,” Tam said on Monday, “we are currently facing state and federal cutbacks in funding for many of our County’s safety net services.”
A path going forward for future Measure W sales tax receipts must also be ironed out for the next several years. Measure W will sunset in 2030.
Nevertheless, expect a long discussion this afternoon. The Measure W discussion begins at 3 p.m.
—For the uninitiated, the Board of Supervisors’ agenda on Tuesday afternoon provides little context to residents about the Measure W discussion. No staff report. No link to additional information. Just the item below:
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