Oakland Admits It Illegally Collected $145,000 In Measure Y Taxes In July, 2010

After the City idiotically decided to lay off 80 officers last year, that meant they had to discontinue collecting Measure Y taxes, including both the parcel tax and the parking tax. Except they didn’t, at the Oakland Airport. According to documents produced in response to a discovery request, the City admitted that the Oakland Airport erroneously continued to collect the tax. The City “redacted” the amount of money illegally collected from the emails produced, but I did a follow-up public records request for the full amount at issue, and last week, the City revealed that the total amount at issue is over $145,000 for the month of July, 2010.

The money is currently sitting in some sort of an impound account, apparently, and if you parked at the airport during that month, that means the tax was illegally collected from you, and you can make a claim for a refund. Realistically, how many people would actually do this? I mean, you pay $15 to $30 to park your car, which means the tax isn’t going to be more than $1.50 to $3.00 for most people. Sitting down at your computer to type out a demand letter, and putting a stamp on the envelope, means that it really isn’t worth the effort. But it’s everybody’s $1.50 tax adding up to the full amount of $145,000, and the principle of the matter, that’s important. An example of yet another screw-up by City officials, and the citizens (as well as out-of-towners) getting screwed. Just thought you should know, in case you wanted to make a claim. Or cared to know about yet another violation of Measure Y.