Here’s the latest Oakland Measure Q Update as of today, March 11th, 2020, and based on the tally posted by the Alameda County Office Of The Registrar:
Contest Votes Percentage
Yes 76,966 66.90 %
No 38,079 33.10 %
Oakland Measure Q Update: the updated, not final, tally posted by the Alameda County Office Of The Registrar is this:
Contest Votes Percentage
Yes 29,332 66.58 %
No 14,722 33.42 %
The law reads that it needs 66.67 percent to pass – in the original report, it had that, with 66.76 percent – now it does not. Either way, this would seem to spell “re-count”. I was just informed that there are “many more ballots to be counted” and so the process will continue to next week. Also, it’s important to note that, in Alameda County, any voter can petition for a recount.
Here’s the original report.
Oakland Measure Q, the initiative to add a parcel tax to raise money for public works services related to parks and the homeless, needed 66 percent of the vote to be declared a winner. It got 66.76 percent of the vote, with 100 percent of all precincts reporting, according to the Alameda County Official Election website. That means Oakland Measure Q won, and by what has to be the slimmest of voting margins in Alameda County elections history. Now, for those who need a recap, just what does Measure Q do? (Zennie62Media was a Measure Q backer!)
Well, you should watch and listen to Measure Q framer John Bliss talk about it with Zennie62Media Vlogger Richard Haick:
And San Francisco Planning And Urban Research (SPUR) offered, perhaps, the best run-down of what Measure Q is and how it will work, outside of the initiative’s planners. So, here’s a liberally-borrowed copy of their text, adjusted for Zennie62Media specs:
Measure Q would authorize a special parcel tax that would be levied annually for 20 years. Tax rates would be as follows:
Single-family residential parcels: $148.00 per parcel
Multiple-unit residential parcels: $101.08 per residential unit
Non-residential parcels: Varies depending on parcel frontage and square footage1
Hotels: Either the multiple-unit residential rate or the non-residential rate, depending on the percentage of residential vs. transient occupancyThe city estimates that Measure Q would raise $21 million dollars annually. The Oakland City Council would appropriate the revenues for parks maintenance, homelessness services and water management needs. Specifically, the revenue would be spent for the following purposes:
64 percent for parks, landscape maintenance and recreational services
30 percent for services to help homeless residents access temporary shelters, transitional and supportive housing, and permanent housing
5 percent for services and projects to address water quality and litter reduction, including maintaining and cleaning stormwater trash collection systems
1 percent to cover the cost of auditing and evaluating the programs and services funded by the measureMeasure Q is intended to provide additional funding for these purposes and explicitly requires the City of Oakland to maintain its current funding levels for parks maintenance, homeless services and stormwater system, so that the new revenues would add to, and not replace, existing funds. No more than 55 percent of the revenue allocated to parks, landscape maintenance and recreational services could be used to preserve current parks operations.
The other 45 percent of the revenue must go to new and improved service levels, such as more frequent mowing of sports fields, collection of litter and improved trail maintenance. However, Measure Q would allow the City Council to suspend these requirements to meet urgent and changing needs in the event of extreme fiscal necessity.
Measure Q outlines exemptions from the tax for qualifying low-income households, senior households, certain religious organizations and schools. Qualifying tenants in single-family homes that have been foreclosed and owners of certain affordable housing projects would receive a 50% rebate of the tax. Prior to the initial collection of the tax, the measure also requires that the city adopt an additional exemption for “distressed homeowners,” a term that the City Council will define at that time.
We will look at other Oakland-related Election 2020 results in our next post, today.
Stay tuned.