If you own a Benicia home built before 2027 and it sells for under $2 million, you pay nothing. Three measures on the November 3 ballot begin replacing revenue our city is losing, by asking new development and the largest transactions to pay their share.
Benicia has been working this problem since 2018, when the city moved to priority based budgeting to close a structural deficit. In December 2023 the council declared a fiscal emergency. In March 2024 it adopted the Resiliency Plan, Benicia's Bridge to Prosperity, to cut costs and diversify how the city pays for itself. All of that came before Valero announced it would close. The closure does not replace the plan. It compresses the timeline, and it adds the tool the plan always needed.
The closure removes roughly $7.7 million a year in sales and property tax from a general fund of about $62.6 million. That is about 12 cents of every general fund dollar, the money that pays for police, fire, streets, and parks.
These three measures position the people who live in Benicia today to carry the city into its next chapter, with help from our new neighbors.
The business side needs the same update. Benicia's business tax rates have not moved since 2011. Everything the city buys has.
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.
Benicia's Bridge to Prosperity rests on three pillars: cutting costs, local investment, and smart growth. Most of that work is already done or already moving. The November measures are the piece that requires your vote.
The Resiliency Plan, already underway.
Cutting costs. The largest staff reduction in over 20 years, $3 million cut from program costs, and City departments downsized.
Local investment. Measures A and B sustaining city services, Measure F funding street and sidewalk repair, and the Park, Landscape and Lighting Assessment District funding parks. An Air District community benefits grant is in progress.
Smart growth. Streamlined design review, red tape cut, port modernization, and $2 million in grants for economic development.
The city's published timeline.
September 2026. Confirmation of Air District grant award.
Fall 2026. Priority Based Budgeting engagement.
Fall 2026. Signature Development application.
November 2026. Result of the 2026 revenue measures.
Early 2027. Clarity on the city's revenue loss from the Valero closure.
Milestones as published by the City of Benicia.
Thousands of homes, and the services they need.
More than 4,000 homes are moving through planning across the community. Those neighborhoods will need streets, water, and fire service. Measure Z is how their sales help pay for it, instead of leaving the bill with the people already here.
Cutting costs and smart growth are already in motion. These measures are the revenue piece, and the only piece that requires a vote.
Each measure does one job, and together they are the long-term piece of that wider response. They are three separate questions on purpose, so you can judge the tool and the tax on their own. Two are a matched set: Measure Y does nothing without Measure Z, and Z cannot exist without Y. One decision, two boxes. Measure X updates a tax that has not changed in 15 years.
Want the whole story, including what a charter city actually is? Read the full plan →
If your home was built before 2027, you pay nothing when you sell, unless it sells at $2 million or more. The typical Benicia home sells for around $800,000. Sales above $2 million are rare here, well under 1 percent of the market.
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 puts no tax on rent, on property tax rates, or on your daily costs.
Commercial and industrial property deals. Homes built in 2027 and later. Marine terminals. The city projects roughly $400,000 a year by 2035, rising above $1.6 million a year by 2045. More than 4,000 homes are moving through planning across the community, and each one contributes as it sells.
Most of this money does not exist yet. It arrives as Benicia's next 20 years get built, which is exactly the point.
Questions about your own situation? Exemptions, family transfers, and new construction are all covered in the frequently asked questions →
In 2024, a similar plan lost. The charter fell 46 to 54, the tax 42 to 58. The same voters passed Measure F for streets by nearly 24 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 most state law allows a city without a charter. That is what existing homes under $2 million keep paying. Measure Z 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. And charters are ordinary: 25 Bay Area cities already govern under one. See the map.
If your home was built before 2027 and sells under $2 million, no. Nothing about your sale changes. Family transfers are exempt too.
Yes, and a judge has already ruled. In July a group of residents asked the Solano County Superior Court to change the ballot wording for Measures Y and Z, arguing that the descriptions voters would read were misleading. The court reviewed the language and denied the petition. The wording on your ballot is the wording the City Council adopted.
We want to be precise about what that decision covers, because it matters. The court was asked one question: does the ballot language fairly describe what these measures do. It answered yes. That is the specific charge that was made against this plan in public, that voters were being misled by the ballot itself, and an independent judge looked at it and rejected it.
What the ruling does not do is settle whether you should vote for these measures. That is still your call, and it should be. Read the full plan and decide.
No. LA's ULA charges 4 to 5.5 percent on top of base rates. Measure Z tops out at 0.8 percent, and only above $10 million. 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. The city projects Measure Z at roughly $400,000 a year by 2035, rising above $1.6 million a year by 2045, against a much larger hole left by Valero's closure. 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.
State law allows a city to vote on a charter only at a November general election in an even year, so the next chance after this one is November 2028, two more budget cycles into the gap. Meanwhile more than 4,000 homes are moving through planning across the community, and the sooner this is on the books, the more of that growth helps pay for the services it brings.
Not this year, and we will say so plainly. What we can tell you is that nothing in these three measures touches rent, sales tax, or a single customer's bill. What helps downtown sooner is the county workforce grant program our restaurants are applying for now, the trade jobs that arrive when the refinery teardown begins in three to four years, and filling the industrial park with companies whose employees eat and shop here. That last one is work this committee intends to keep doing after November.
No. Benicia has been restructuring its budget since 2018, and cutting came first: the largest staff reduction in over 20 years, $3 million cut from program costs, and City departments downsized. Smart growth is moving too, with streamlined design review, red tape cut, and $2 million in grants for economic development. This ballot is the revenue piece of a plan that was already in motion, and the only piece that requires a vote.
By law, general taxes go to the general fund: police, fire, streets, parks. Measure Z carries annual audits and citizen oversight. This fall's Priority Based Budgeting engagement is where residents set the spending priorities those dollars follow.
The business tax cap is $1,500 in year one, and 1,800 of our smallest businesses stop paying anything. On the property side, a 0.4 to 0.8 percent one-time transfer tax is a small line in a commercial closing statement, smaller than the broker commission on the same deal.
Because you should be able to judge them separately. Some California cities have put a charter and a transfer tax to voters as a single question. We chose not to. Measure Y unlocks Measure Z, and neither does anything alone. Measure X stands on its own. Three questions, so you can weigh each one.
Building Benicia's Future, a volunteer committee of Benicia residents. More about who we are.
Building Benicia's Future is made up entirely of Benicia residents: homeowners, small business owners, and community leaders who live here and plan to keep living here. It is volunteer-run and funded by local contributions, every one of them publicly reported.
We came together to pass these three measures. We intend to keep working after November on attracting business, filling the industrial park, and supporting downtown, because the ballot is one piece of a much longer job.
Paid for by Building Benicia's Future, a Committee for Measures X, Y and Z.
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.