Berkeley businesses and residents are still reeling from the largest property-tax assessment jump in city history—10–25%.
Rather than exercise restraint in the wake of a historic cost-of-living increase, Councilmembers Bartlett, Tregub, O’Keefe, and Blackaby are endorsing a 12-year parcel tax on every home and business in Berkeley. The ordinance, titled the 2026 Berkeley Arts and Creative Economy Rescue and Sustainability Ballot Measure, amounts to a duplicative public subsidy of0 performing arts organizations.
Berkeley's Existing $1M Arts Budget
We already finance a $700,000 Civic Arts Grant Program and $300,000 for capital projects.
Further, in past years, individual Berkeley-based arts and cultural organizations have received direct capital through budget referrals. Since FY 2016, Berkeley has made $150,000 awards to the following organizations: the Aurora Theatre, UC Theatre, Capoeira Arts Foundation, Luna Kids Dance, the La Pena Cultural Center, and a $100,000 award to the Kala Art Institute. Some of these organizations are now financing the ballot measure campaign.
Prioritizing Private Deficits Over Berkeley’s Financial Crisis
The ordinance would cost residents $5.5 million a year, nearly one-quarter of Berkeley’s existing structural budget deficit where the city spends more every year than it takes in—even in normal economic conditions. Fixing the deficit is supposed to be the City Council’s top fiduciary responsibility.
Apparently, Councilmembers Bartlett, Tregub, O’Keefe and Blackaby place a higher priority on the deficits of private organizations over the one for which elected officials have a fiduciary responsibility.
The Groups Funding the Measure Could Capture 85% of the Money
Here’s where it gets even more brazen:
75% of the new tax revenue is reserved for “established performing arts organizations” operating for at least three years.
Those organizations are also eligible for another 10% for capital projects.
Four such organizations have already committed $49,000 to finance the ballot campaign.
In other words, the groups financing this initiative could legally receive up to 85% of the tax revenue they’re asking you to approve.
Incentivizing Warped Budgeting: Spend More, Get More
One of the most perverse provisions in the ordinance is the formula that allows the organizations financing the ordinance to receive grant funding based on a percentage of their annual operating expenses. The higher your expenses, the higher your award amount.
For Performing Arts Organizations with Annual Operating Expenses greater than or equal to one million dollars ($1,000,000) per fiscal year, the grant request may be up to ten percent (10.00%) of its Annual Operating Expenses.
This provision creates a perverse incentive to increase operating expenses (particularly salaries) so the applicant can then apply for larger grant amounts. Directors’ salaries at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre already range from $350,000 - 423,000 per year. If this ordinance were to pass, expect that salary increase on Day One.
For reference (and by contrast), grants are normally issued through a tiered model with fixed award amounts:
Tier 1 – Small-scale projects: $X fixed award
Tier 2 – Moderate projects: $Y fixed award
Tier 3 – Large or complex projects: $Z fixed award
Applicants are select the tier that best reflects the size, complexity, and resources required for their proposed scope of work.
A Dystopian Vision: Subsidize Us, Or Else
One of the most bizarre and evidence free assertions from the ordinance lobby is a warning that, if we don’t approve this subsidy: we risk returning to an empty downtown and pandemic-era crime rates. While we are not aware of any evidence supporting an association between theater operations and rising crime, we welcome the ordinance’s sponsors to substantiate this claim in the comments section.
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