Running from May 21 to June 6, this campaign builds upon our long-term statewide commercial property tax reform campaign, “Make It Fair”. By building an informed electorate, we plan to pass a statewide ballot measure closing Prop. 13 loopholes that corporations like Chevron and Disneyland exploit to receive jaw-dropping tax breaks. Our team of 16 campaign outreach members (over 25% bilingual) are helping voters connect the dots between mega property tax breaks that corporations exploit and the underfunding of our schools, health care, roads and other public services. Getting the message out on the phone, at the door and via text messaging, we expect to ultimately reach over 5,700 Oakland voters. Not surprisingly, our message resonates strongly with our base – so far, over 95% of people we’ve talked with support it!

Additionally, our outreach crew is speaking to voters about the City of Oakland’s budget priorities and formation of a public lands policy. As we all know, Oakland is at the height of gentrification and displacement. Long term residents are being pushed out of our homes, jobs are not paying nearly enough to match the cost of living, and every day we see more and more tents popping up as the number of homeless people grows.  

It’s clear that our communities are not being valued by our elected decision-makers.  In fact, they are proposing to fill budget gaps by selling public lands to build luxury housing, instead of pressing developers to create housing and jobs that will actually benefit long-time Oakland residents and address the homeless crisis. We are asking voters if they support a responsible public lands policy and city budget that supports working families who are struggling to survive and stay in our beloved city.