Questions people ask about Fremont's budget
Short answers with Fremont'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.
This site covers two cities, so it can't say what's typical. Berkeley's chart is built the same way, and Berkeley's answer gives its shares, but the two don't compare directly.
One reason: some services that a city runs elsewhere are run by other governments in Fremont, with budgets of their own. The City lists them: Alameda County Water District, Union Sanitary District for sewers, and East Bay Regional Park District, among others.
Fremont's libraries are run by Alameda County Library, which the county's Board of Supervisors governs, so they aren't a City department. The City pays for extra library hours: $659,400 this year.
More: Why can't I compare one city's “per $100” with another's?
Fremont's public schools are run by Fremont Unified School District (FUSD), a separate government with its own budget, so school spending isn't in the City's numbers. FUSD publishes its budget on its own site.
There's no single roads line. In the General Fund, Maintenance Operations () looks after City streets, parks, buildings and vehicles. Its own page splits its by service area, and streets are of it.
Most street money is restricted: the state gas tax, including SB1, Alameda County's Measure BB transportation sales tax and a countywide vehicle registration fee can only be spent on transportation.
The capital plan has for transportation improvements in FY 2026/27. The City cut the General Fund's yearly transfer for pavement maintenance by $2.225 million, starting in FY 2025/26. See the Capital page.
The City budgets in employer pension contributions for FY 2026/27, across all its plans. That's spread across every department as part of salaries and benefits, so it isn't one line on the chart.
The plans' unfunded liability was as of 6/30/2024, when they were 70.4% funded.
Paying off past borrowing, General Fund debt service, is this year.
Fremont's sales tax rate is 10.250%. That's the statewide 7.25%, plus six Alameda County district taxes of 0.50% each.
Of the statewide rate, 1.00% goes to city or county operations, which is the local share, and 0.25% to county transportation funds. The rest goes to the state's General Fund and to state funds for local public safety, health and social services.
The six district taxes go to BART, Alameda County's essential health care services, its children's health and child care, the county's Transportation Commission (two taxes) and the county itself.
The City's financial report lists the ten largest property owners by taxable assessed value. In 2025 the largest was Tesla Motors Inc, at 5.19% of the City's total; the top ten together were 10.49%.
That's the value of their property, not the tax they pay, and the City gets only part of the property tax: it says it receives about 15 cents of every dollar paid.
No. The budget shows money and staff positions, not activity.
It does split the Police Department's by service area: Patrol Operations/Dispatch is , Administration/Records and Investigations . Smaller areas include detention and evidence storage, animal services, community engagement, a Mobile Evaluation Team and a SWAT team.