California voters will decide 118 local tax measures and $8.07 billion in bond requests on November 3

Cities, counties, school districts and special districts across California have placed 251 local measures on the November 3 ballot. Most of them ask for money. There are 118 tax measures and 62 bond measures, and the bonds add up to $8,072,098,720. The other 71 measures change city charters, zoning rules or how a local government runs. Forty-nine of the state's 58 counties have at least one local measure. Nine have none at all.

School and college districts are asking for almost all of the bond money. They placed 56 of the 62 bond measures, worth $7.3 billion.

Three cities are asking for bonds worth $611 million between them. Alameda wants $300 million for earthquake and sea level rise work, including the tubes under the estuary. Berkeley wants $300 million for fire stations, emergency response buildings and parks. Needles wants $11.2 million for city projects.

Two hospital districts account for another $86 million. The San Bernardino Mountains Community Hospital District wants $61 million. It would repair a 75 year old hospital and expand its emergency department. The Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District wants $25 million for a new hospital building and better emergency and operating rooms.

One more measure, in San Joaquin County, asks for $79 million in school bonds. The county has not published which district is asking.

California has 483 incorporated cities and towns. Ninety-four of them, about one in five, have a local measure on this ballot. Sixty-five have a tax measure, which is 13 percent of all California cities and towns. Thirty have a sales tax or parcel tax measure, or about 6 percent.

Sales taxes lead the tax measures at 31. Twenty-nine ask for a parcel tax, which is a flat charge on each piece of property. Nineteen ask to raise the tax that hotel guests pay. Nine change business taxes, eight change the tax paid when property is sold, and one extends a tax on utility bills. The remaining 21 are other local taxes, including fire district taxes, cannabis taxes and vehicle fees.

Bonds account for the largest dollar figures. Sixty of the 62 name an amount, and together they seek $8,072,098,720. Two have not published a figure, so the total will be higher.

Schools account for most of the borrowing

Fifty-six of the 62 bond measures come from school and college districts. They total $7.3 billion. The largest request in the state is from the Los Rios Community College District in Yolo County, at $1.1 billion. The San Bernardino Community College District follows at $898 million. It would repair San Bernardino Valley College and Crafton Hills College and expand job training in skilled trades, firefighting and health care. Santa Rosa Junior College is next at $830 million, at a cost of $25 per $100,000 of assessed value.

The next three are San Bernardino City Unified School District at $345 million, Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District at $321 million and Lodi Unified School District at $195 million. Three more ask for $300 million each: the City of Alameda, the City of Berkeley and Natomas Unified School District in Sacramento County.

The median request is $60 million. Twenty-one measures ask for $100 million or more. Twenty ask for less than $20 million. The smallest is Meadows Union Elementary School District in Imperial County at $1,808,320, for energy upgrades, parking lot repairs and a gymnasium.

The work these bonds pay for repeats from district to district. Districts list leaky roofs, failing plumbing, old electrical panels and heating and cooling systems past their service life. Dixon Unified School District wants to remove asbestos and lead pipes. Columbia School District in Shasta County wants to replace sewer lines. Summerville Elementary in Tuolumne County is asking for $3.4 million to fix roofs, plumbing and fire safety systems.

Two of the bond measures come from cities rather than schools. Alameda would spend $300 million on earthquake and sea level rise readiness, including work to keep the tubes under the estuary from flooding. Berkeley would spend $300 million on fire stations, emergency response buildings and parks.

Sales taxes would raise more than half a billion dollars a year

Thirty-one measures ask for a sales tax. One of them is a regional transit measure that appears on ballots in five counties.

Twenty-three of the 30 local measures publish an estimate of what they would collect. Those 23 come to about $639 million a year. The regional transit measure would add about $980 million a year on top of that.

The largest single city estimate is Santa Ana at about $84 million a year. The City of Orange expects about $37 million, Ontario about $32.5 million, Fairfield about $24 million and Napa County about $23 million. Merced expects about $18 million, Tulare about $16 million and San Clemente about $15 million. At the small end, Grand Terrace expects about $1.2 million and Weed about $1.7 million.

The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority measure is the largest outside the Bay Area. It would extend an existing countywide tax without raising the rate and bring in about $250 million a year for pothole repair and freeway work.

Twenty-five California cities have a sales tax measure on the ballot. That is about 5 percent of the state's cities and towns. Six cities have a parcel tax measure, and Berkeley has both. Thirty cities have one or the other, or about 6 percent of all cities and towns in the state.

Most are new taxes. At least six extend or keep a tax that residents already pay. Santa Ana, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Vacaville and Tulare all want to continue a tax residents already pay. So does the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority.

The rate is usually a full cent or a half cent. Shafter, San Clemente, Adelanto, Grand Terrace, Highland, Twentynine Palms, Tulare and Woodland all chose a cent. Berkeley, Palo Alto, Ontario, Napa County and Coalinga chose a half cent. Fortuna picked three quarters of a cent. The smallest is in Kern County, where an eighth of a cent would fund the California Living Museum, a zoo in Bakersfield, for about $24 million a year.

Most of these taxes have no end date. Seventeen would run until voters repeal them. Six set a term: Calexico for 20 years, Napa County for 18, the regional transit measure for 14, the City of Orange for 13, San Clemente for 10 and Rio Vista for three.

The money goes to the same short list of services almost everywhere. Seventeen measures name fire protection. Fourteen name police. Fourteen name street and pothole repair. Thirteen name 911 response. Six name parks, five name homelessness and four name wildfire work. Napa County is the clearest example of a single purpose: its half cent would pay for brush clearing, dead tree removal, firebreaks and evacuation routes.

San Bernardino County has the most of any county. Six of its cities are asking for a sales tax, and the county transportation authority is asking to extend one. Berkeley's half cent would push the city rate to 10.75 percent, among the highest in the state.

Hotel taxes rise on visitors, not residents

Nineteen measures raise the tax hotel guests pay. Residents do not pay them directly.

Pleasanton would go from 8 percent to 10 percent in 2027 and 12 percent in 2028, adding $1.4 million to $2.8 million a year. The City of Orange would go from 10 percent to 14 percent for hotels with 11 or more rooms, and would apply the tax to online travel companies, for about $3 million a year. Lemoore in Kings County would go from 8 percent to 12 percent. Point Arena would go from 12 percent to 14 percent.

Solano County is asking for the largest jump. Its rate in unincorporated areas would rise from 5 percent to 12 percent. Madera County wants two more points for 911 response, worth about $1,780,000 a year.

Property owners face parcel taxes and transfer taxes

Twenty-nine measures ask for a parcel tax. These are flat charges, often set by square foot, and they need two thirds of the vote to pass.

Marin County voters will decide a child care tax of 5 cents per building square foot. It would raise about $12.5 million a year for 15 years. Albany wants 3.54 cents per lot square foot for street trees and streetlights. Berkeley has two on the ballot: one at 7 cents per square foot for arts grants, and one to fund a city-owned public bank for housing, green energy and small business loans.

Eight measures change the tax paid when property changes hands. Piedmont would raise its rate from $13.00 to $17.50 per $1,000 of sale price. Oakland would end the exemption that foreclosure sales now get. San Francisco has two: one would dedicate the existing tax on sales of $10 million or more to affordable housing, and one would remove the same foreclosure exemption Oakland is targeting. Benicia would create a transfer tax that skips existing homes selling for $2 million or less.

Business taxes are being rewritten after decades

Nine cities want to change how they tax businesses. In most cases the current rules are old.

Hayward has not updated its business license tax since 1978. Its measure would raise about $12 million a year, with a minimum tax of $60. Newark is rewriting an ordinance that is 56 years old and says the change would lower taxes for many small businesses. Costa Mesa is updating a 41 year old tax so larger firms pay more. Upland is updating a 31 year old tax on the same terms.

Albany would shift its business tax from a count of employees to gross receipts. Benicia would set rates by business category, from 25 cents to $1.25 per $1,000 of receipts, and exempt businesses under $100,000 a year.

Solano County has a measure that would tax energy projects. It would raise the tax rate on commercial wind turbines and extend the tax to commercial solar systems and battery storage systems, which pay nothing today.

Ten measures change what can be built

Ten measures deal with land use. Newport Beach asks voters to amend the city plan to allow 2,900 new affordable homes, at 20 to 50 homes per acre. Of those, 2,160 are set aside for the lowest income households.

Davis would rezone the Willowgrove property for housing with parks, trails, open space and neighborhood retail. Sausalito would raise height and building coverage limits in its industrial and waterfront districts and repeal the Marinship plan. Grover Beach would cap building height and require mixed-use projects to be at least one third commercial.

Albany would let its council change single family zoning rules without the neighborhood vote that has been required since 1978. Cupertino would amend its city plan and add a new chapter to its municipal code. McFarland in Kern County would let its council rewrite the rules on large livestock operations. Santa Cruz County voters will decide whether land use changes tied to deep sea mining need voter approval.

Five counties share one transit measure

One measure appears on ballots in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. It would add a half cent sales tax in four of those counties and a full cent in San Francisco, for 14 years. It would raise about $980 million a year for Bay Area Rapid Transit, Caltrain, Muni and other transit agencies, and would also fund road repair.

A quieter set of measures changes how city hall works

Nineteen measures amend a city or county charter, which is the document that sets how a local government runs. Oakland would make the mayor the chief executive and give the mayor a veto, while giving the council override power and its own budget analyst. San Francisco has several, including one that would raise the number of signatures needed to put an initiative on the ballot from about 10,600 to about 42,500.

Seven cities and counties ask voters to stop electing the treasurer or the clerk and appoint the job instead. Clearlake, Livingston, Los Banos, Colton, Fairfield and Amador County are all on that list. Grover Beach is going the other way, and asks whether its appointed clerk should be elected.

Three measures set term limits. Laguna Beach and Lake Forest would cap council service at two consecutive terms. The El Camino Healthcare District in Santa Clara County would limit its own board.

Two cities want to become charter cities, which gives them more control over local matters. McFarland and the City of Orange each put a charter on the ballot.

What is still unsettled

Two bond measures have not published the amount they want to borrow. Both are in Santa Clara County, from the Gilroy Unified and Alum Rock Union Elementary school districts. The $8.07 billion total will rise once they do.

Seven counties have posted notices that do not yet name individual measures. This count covers the 42 counties whose measures are clear. San Diego County has not assigned letters to 14 measures on its published list. Voters there will not see a Measure A or a Measure B until the county finishes that step.

Two measures have been pulled from the ballot. San Luis Obispo County supervisors withdrew a countywide sales tax on August 5. Sacramento County lists one of its measures as withdrawn.

County lists also keep growing after the filing deadline. Counties are still posting notices, resolutions and full measure texts. A count taken in October will be higher than this one.