Why I’m Voting Yes on Measure GG

Editor,

Serving on Piedmont’s Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee has taught me a lot about how our city’s finances work, and it’s why I support Measure GG to increase the real estate transfer tax rate.

Piedmont has great schools, safe streets, fast emergency response, and a strong sense of community. It’s easy to assume a city like ours has vast financial resources. I assumed that too before joining the committee. In reality, our city’s budget is more constrained than many residents realize.

Piedmont is almost entirely residential, so nearly all of our revenue comes from property: property taxes, the parcel tax, and the transfer tax paid when a home sells. Meanwhile, most nearby cities benefit from much larger commercial and industrial tax bases. Without that kind of tax revenue, Piedmont depends on the transfer tax in a way our neighbors simply don’t.

Our 1.3% transfer tax rate was set 33 years ago and hasn’t changed since, while the city’s costs for salaries, pensions, insurance and construction have kept rising. Over the same period, most of our neighbors have raised their rates, several of them since 2018. At the average Piedmont home price, our current rate is lower than Berkeley’s, Oakland’s, Emeryville’s or Albany’s. Measure GG would raise it to 1.75%, generating about $1.5 million a year for police, fire, and maintenance of our roads, storm drains, parks and city buildings.

Transfer tax revenue does go up when home sales are strong, and we’ve had some good years. But sales rise and fall with interest rates and the economy, and a strong year doesn’t fix the longterm gap between what the city needs to maintain and what it can count on.

Measure GG bolsters a one-time tax paid at the time of sale, and it addresses a real need I’ve seen firsthand. I hope you’ll join me in voting yes.

–Billy Deitch is a Piedmont resident and member of the city’s Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee. Views are his own.