If your Benicia home sells for under $2 million, you pay nothing. Three measures on the November 3 ballot replace revenue our city is losing, by asking new development and the largest transactions to pay their share.
Valero's shutdown removes roughly $7.7 million a year from Benicia's $65 million general fund. That is about 12 cents of every general fund dollar, the money that pays for police, fire, streets, and parks.
This is not a fifth new tax on the people who live here. It is the replacement plan: as Benicia redevelops, new construction and major transactions pay a share of what the refinery used to carry.
The business side needs the same update. Costs rose about 75 percent over 15 years. Benicia's business tax rates never moved once.
And the honest part: no single measure closes that gap. This plan is how Benicia captures a share of its own growth over the next 20 years. The rest takes discipline and new business.
Each measure does one job. State law forces them onto the ballot separately, so we ask for all three. Two are a matched set: Measure 2 does nothing without Measure 3, and 3 cannot exist without 2. One decision, two boxes. Measure 1 updates a tax that has not changed in 15 years.
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When you sell, unless your home sells at $2 million or more. The typical Benicia home sells for around $800,000. One local sale has crossed the $2 million line in two years.
If you take in under $100,000 a year, your license tax goes away entirely. About 1,800 businesses qualify.
This plan taxes property transactions and business receipts. It does not touch rent, property tax rates, or your daily costs.
Commercial and industrial property deals. Homes built in 2027 and later. Marine terminals. About $400,000 a year at first, growing past $1 million as new projects sell. Rose Estates alone plans about 1,620 homes, worth roughly $5.8 million in transfer tax as they sell. Planning has started on about 3,500 more units on the Valero site. And at the top rate, a single $2 billion sale of the refinery property would yield about $16 million.
In 2024, a similar plan lost. The charter fell 46 to 54, the tax 41 to 59. The same voters passed Measure F for streets by 22 points on the same night. Benicians were not saying no to funding their city. They were saying no to a tax that hit every home sale from dollar one. They were right.
| What you said in 2024 | What changed |
|---|---|
| "The transfer tax hits every home sale. That is an exit tax on neighbors." | Homes built before 2027 and selling under $2 million now pay zero. The typical Benicia sale is around $800,000. |
| "A charter hands City Hall unknown new power." | The charter is one page, limited in writing to one function, and only voters can ever amend it. |
| "Where does the real money come from?" | New development and commercial transactions. That was always the point, and now it leads the plan. |
Yes. 55 cents per $1,000 of sale price, the maximum state law allows a city without a charter. That is what existing homes under $2 million keep paying. Measure 3 sets modern rates only on commercial sales, new construction, and sales of $2 million and up.
No. The charter is one page and grants one function. It does not touch Prop 13, Prop 218's voter approval rules, the Brown Act, or state housing law. Every future tax still requires your vote, and only voters can amend the charter itself.
If your home was built before 2027 and sells under $2 million, no. Nothing about your sale changes. Family transfers are exempt too.
No. LA's ULA charges 4 to 5.5 percent on top of base rates, with no exemption for ordinary homes. Measure 3 tops out at 0.8 percent, and only above $10 million. Existing Benicia homes under $2 million pay nothing. Different animal, different order of magnitude.
New neighborhoods bring the next round of road, water, and public safety costs, and this revenue helps fund exactly that. The rate is a fraction of the standard fees new development already pays. Existing owners spent decades of taxes building the city that makes Benicia worth moving to.
Not by itself, and we will not pretend otherwise. Measure 3 starts around $400,000 a year against a much larger hole left by Valero's closure. It grows past $1 million as new projects sell. It is one of three tools, alongside the business tax update and spending discipline. It is how Benicia captures a share of its own redevelopment over the next 20 years.
By law, general taxes go to the general fund: police, fire, streets, parks. The council is adopting public spending priorities and a capital reserve that takes a 4/5 council vote to touch, with annual audits and citizen oversight.
The business tax cap is $1,500 in year one, and 1,800 of our smallest businesses stop paying anything. On the property side, commercial brokers will tell you a transaction tax this size does not drive site decisions.
State law will not let them combine. Measure 2 unlocks Measure 3. Measure 1 stands on its own. One decision, spread across the boxes the law requires.
Building Benicia's Future, a volunteer committee of residents, business owners, and community leaders.
A question, a yard sign, an endorsement, a speaker for your group, or just the occasional update. One email address, and a volunteer reads every message.