Tag Archives: Benicia Measures XYZ

Benicia City Council, Kari Birdseye, Local elections, Terry Scott

Carrie Rehak: On Benicia’s Flourishing Future

…loving Benicia isn’t the same as pretending everything is fine

Carrie Rehak, Ph.D, Benicia resident, artist, educator

I just love this wee hamlet, with its aging pipes and complicated budget decisions. I really do. I love the hills. The water. The historic buildings. The art. The gardens. The neighbors who can turn a quick walk alone downtown into a spontaneous street party.

I also love Benicia enough to know that loving it isn’t the same as pretending everything is fine.

It’s not.

The closure of the Valero refinery has put some very large questions on the table. How do we pay our bills without selling off our future? What do we owe the workers whose livelihoods have depended on the refinery, and the land and water that have borne the costs of its operation? Who gets to decide what comes next, and who gets stuck living with the consequences?

These are not questions that can be answered with slick slogans, shiny yard signs, or a few reassuring words from someone who won’t have to live with the long-term impacts of what we decide today.

I really don’t trust easy answers, especially to complex questions.

But I do trust Kari Birdseye and Terry Scott.

I know them both personally. They are genuine, caring people who were showing up for Benicia long before their names appeared on ballots. And they have stamina. They have endured years of meetings, commissions, and volunteer commitments. And they keep showing up!

And they have vision as well as experience.

They care about the arts. Not as decoration, but as part of the life of this city. Terry spent years chairing Benicia’s Arts and Culture Commission, and I know Kari’s commitment to the arts personally. She supports local artists and is married to a musician. A town without artists might have a balanced budget, but it won’t have much soul.

In addition, Kari has spent years advocating for environmental protections and for the apparently controversial proposition that prosperity shouldn’t require poisoning the place you live. And Terry brings a background in business, finance, and community development.

And then there is the matter of paying for the place we love. Not particularly romantic, I know, but neither are broken water mains, deteriorating streets, or a city budget held together by optimism and bubblegum.

This November, Benicia voters will consider three measures addressing how the city raises revenue. Measure X would modernize the business license tax, exempting businesses with $100,000 or less in annual gross receipts, setting rates by business type, and establishing a separate tax on marine terminal activity. Measure Y would establish a limited city charter, allowing the property transfer tax proposed in Measure Z to take effect only if voters approve both measures. Measure Z would impose a one-time tax on certain property transfers, including commercial sales, newly constructed homes, and higher-value residential sales. Homes built before January 1, 2027, and sold for $2 million or less would be exempt, along with certain family transfers and deed-restricted affordable housing.

These measures raise questions worth asking. Who pays? How much? Where does the money go? What will it mean for the people who live and work here? We need to pay our bills, certainly. And we ought to be thoughtful about how we do it, and who carries the weight.

By local standards, I am a newbie to Benicia. I moved here ten and a half years ago. I am also an artist and an educator. I hope to be able to stay here. I hope Benicia will be a place where artists can make art, where teachers can teach, where small businesses can thrive, where families can put down roots, and where the hills and the water aren’t merely scenery for the next lucrative business venture.

In Benicia we live with the consequences of decisions made before us, and where people we will never meet will live with ours. Let’s be mindful neighbors now and even better ancestors to those who will come after us.

Carrie Rehak, Ph.D
Benicia Resident

Benicia CA, Benicia Measures XYZ, Local elections

Larnie Fox: Why should you vote yes on Benicia Measures X, Y and Z?

…we have a challenge and an opportunity.

By Larnie Fox, in email, October 10, 2026

Larnie Fox, Benicia resident and artist

Our little City is at a turning point. Our biggest taxpayer, Valero, is pretty much gone, so we are looking at a shortfall in the money that we, the people, use to pay our police and firefighters, repair our roads and our aging sewers, run our library, pool and parks and generally make Benicia a safe and vibrant community.

At the same time, there are big developments in the works. The Signature Development Group is currently working with our citizens to plan for huge residential and industrial developments on the Valero property. The Seeno family is currently planning for another huge development on their 527-acre property near Lake Herman, unfortunately not working with our citizens so much. Because the State is mandating more housing, there will be other developments too; we are at the cusp of a development boom.

So we have a challenge and an opportunity.

Measure Z taxes only new construction and sales of properties valued at over $2 million at 0.4%, and higher percentages for properties worth over $10 million. The seller generally pays this fee. My house won’t sell for over $2 million in the foreseeable future, will yours? Let’s not miss this opportunity to get this in place before all the development starts. Cities are typically on the hook for at least part of new infrastructure costs for new developments.

Measure Y makes Measure Z possible by making Benicia a limited charter city. That is all it does. It does not change how City governance is structured. We need it to get Measure Z in place, so we can continue to fund the City services that are keeping us safe and comfortable.

Measure X makes it so that people whose business earns under $100K per year are no longer required to get a business license. Currently every tiny mom-and-pop business in town is supposed to get one, though many don’t comply. This includes musicians and artists (like me), which makes no sense. I’m lucky if I sell over $1,000 a year!

I’m sure that much of the opposition to these three measures is based on misinformation on social media and general mistrust of government. I share that mistrust on the national and state levels, but I follow our City Council. I see them in action and I do trust them, and I usually agree with their decisions. They are all dedicated civil servants who virtually volunteer most of their time to do the hard work of keeping the City running. And remember, anything and anyone that we the people vote in, we can also vote out, if things don’t work out as we would like.

A primary opponent of Measures X, Y and Z is Justin Zollars, City Council candidate, endorsed by the local Republican party. I attended a “meet the candidates” forum, hosted by the Benicia Voice podcast on September 29. As of that date Justin had never attended or watched a City Council meeting, and was remarkably uninformed on other important local issues. I suspect his resistance to Measures X, Y and Z is motivated by his desire to stake out positions in opposition to the other two better-qualified candidates.

So, please help the effort to keep our sweet little City humming along, safe and vibrant. Vote yes on Measures X, Y, and Z.

Larnie Fox

Benicia CA, Benicia Measures XYZ, Local elections, Stephen Golub

Vote Yes On Benicia Measures Y And Z

Will Ballot Measures Y and Z Cost You Anything? Questions and Answers on Benicia’s Proposed Transfer Tax

[Editor: in this article Mr. Golub is addressing only Benicia’s Measures Y and Z. For his take on Measure X, see here in his previous article. – RS] By Stephen Golub, Benicia resident and author, “Benicia and Beyond” column in the Benicia Herald, October 4, 2026

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub

Questions that concerned Benicians might ask about ballot Measures Y and Z…

This November’s Benicia ballot Measure Z would establish a transfer tax for the sale of certain homes. If I buy or sell  a typical, currently existing home, will I have to pay that tax if the measure passes?

No. Almost all currently existing Benicia homes are exempt from the tax, which will be established if Measure Z is approved by Benicians.

This is because the tax only  applies to:

  1. a) new homes that will be built starting in 2027; or
  2. b) currently existing homes sold for $2 million or more, of which there are only a handful here since the average home price in Benicia is about $820,000.

But what if I want to sell a home worth over $2 million to a close relative? Or what if in the future I want to sell a home built after January 1, 2027 to that relative? Do either of us pay that tax?

No. The tax does not apply to sales or gifts of homes between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings, spouses and domestic partners. (Certain affordable housing is also exempted.)

Why is the tax necessary?

Despite budget cuts, city government reorganization and other actions, Benicia has an anticipated annual budget gap of at least $7.5 million and perhaps nearly $11 million.

The Measure Z transfer tax will help close that gap in two ways:

  1. a) It will apply not just to residential properties, but also to commercial and industrial sales. In fact, if the transfer tax were already in place in recent years, it could have yielded millions of dollars from sales in the Benicia Industrial Park. More on this below.
  2. b) It will apply to the several thousand new housing units that will be built in Benicia in coming years, as mandated by state law or made possible by redevelopment of the Valero property.

But much potential  new development, whether residential, commercial or industrial, is years away. Will Measure Z produce much revenue in the next few years?

For one thing, potential sales of existing Industrial Park properties could produce large sums of revenue in the next few years. If Measure Z were already in place late last year, Benicia would have pocketed a tax of $1,160,000 from the sale of a large parcel of land in the Industrial Park. Similar future sales are certainly a possibility.

In addition, Measure Z is about the future. It is about putting in place the revenue stream to help Benicia sustain police, fire, recreational, infrastructure and other services for our kids, grandkids and all of us in years to come, so our wonderful town can survive and thrive.

Fair enough, so what will the transfer tax rates be under Measure Z?

The tax is $4, $6 or $8 per $1,000 in sale price, depending on whether the price is under $2,000,000, from $2,000,000 to $9,999,999, or $10,000,000 or more.

Again, though, remember that the tax on residential properties only applies to currently existing homes that sell for $2 million or more, or to homes built after January 1, 2027.

There’s also a ballot Measure Y, right? What does that do?

Measure Y is necessary as a companion law for Measure Z. Measure Y establishes Benicia as a limited Charter City, a status necessary for the city government to set the proposed transfer tax rates under Measure Z. To introduce those rates, then, it is essential to vote Yes on both Measures Y and Z.

I’ve heard certain opponents claim that Measures Y and Z open the door for Benicia to increase the transfer taxes or tax additional properties or expand Benicia’s status as a Charter City in ways we might not like. Is that true?

No. Any of these changes would require new ballot measures that we all would vote on. And there are no plans to propose such changes in any event.

I’ve also heard certain opponents claim that becoming a Charter City or establishing transfer taxes is disastrous for cities. Is this true?

No. There are 25 charter cities in the Bay Area alone, some with transfer taxes higher than those proposed by Measure Z. Charter city status or transfer taxes have not driven away businesses or harmed their financial health. One Bay Area charter city, Vallejo, went bankrupt, but that was for unrelated reasons.

How can I gain more information about this issue?

One good place is Building Benicia’s Future site, at beniciasfuture.org.

So, as summed up at that site, if I own a Benicia home built before 2027 and it sells for under $2 million, I  pay nothing. Do I have that right?

Yes.

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

Stephen Golub writes about democracy and politics, both in America and abroad, at A Promised Land: America as a Developing Country.

…and… here’s more Golub on the Benicia Independent

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