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Berkeley, CA

Questions people ask about Berkeley's budget

Short answers with Berkeley's own numbers. Tap a figure to see where it came from. Each answer has its own link, so you can share just that one.

Questions about every city, like what the General Fund is, are answered once for the whole site.

  1. Is most of Berkeley's budget police?

    Public safety is the biggest part of the General Fund's departments, but not most of the whole budget. On the chart of the department baseline before proposed cuts, , public safety is $57.03 of every $100: Police is ($37.42 of every $100) and Fire is ($19.61 of every $100).

    The City's whole budget, across all its funds, is in FY2027.

    Who's being asked to cut, and by how much.

    More: What's the General Fund, and how is it different from the whole budget?

  2. Where are the schools?

    Berkeley's public schools are run by Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD), a separate government with its own budget: $248.2 million of General Fund revenue in 2026-27. See BUSD's budget, explained.

    More: Why aren't schools in a city's budget?

  3. How much goes to pensions?

    Staff costs are most of the General Fund: the City cites for personnel, of a General Fund. That's in salaries and in pension, health and other benefits, which the City reports together.

    For unfunded liabilities, staff have recently cited about . Estimates vary with how and when they're measured.

  4. How much goes to roads?

    In FY2027, the capital program pays for streets from the General Fund, for street condition improvement and for other street work, and from funds that can only go to transportation: Measure BB sales tax, ; the state gas tax, ; and the vehicle registration fee, . Measure FF (Safe Streets) adds .

    The City estimates its unfunded capital and maintenance needs, streets included, at . See the Capital page.

  5. What would the sales tax measure change?

    Measure V would add a general sales tax in Berkeley. The City estimates it would bring in $9 to $10 million a year, starting April 1, 2027, and as a general tax its money would go into the General Fund.

    See the budget with and without it.

  6. Who pays the most property tax?

    The City's financial report lists the ten largest property owners by taxable assessed value. In 2025 the largest was Bayer Healthcare LLC, at 1.56% of the taxable value of all real property in the City; the top ten together were 5.79%.

    That's the value of their property, not the tax they pay. The property tax is divided among several governments, and the City gets only part of it.

    More: Where does my property tax go?