City of Oakland v. Digre

Opinion

LOW, P. J.

In this case, we hold that Oakland’s Neighborhood Services Retention Act of 1988, a flat-fee “parcel tax” designed to raise revenue for the support of municipal services, is a non-ad valorem general property tax prohibited by article XIII, section 1 of the California Constitution. In so doing, we only invalidate the tax ordinance before us. We do not hold that a flat-fee parcel tax must necessarily be considered a property tax.

The Neighborhood Services Retention Act was submitted for voter approval as “Measure M” in the June 7, 1988, primary election. The proposed tax was…