Vallejo City Council takes steps to ease Mare Island special tax burden
The Vallejo City Council took steps Monday toward easing the burden of special taxes paid by Mare Island residents, though one of the most hoped-for proposed solutions could not be put into practice.
Though advisors said a proposed freeze of the special taxes couldn't be effected, the council voted to further explore the idea during the budget process. The council is in the process of putting together the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The council also voted to explore further methods of taxation to raise revenue from the island and to ask the state controller's office to perform an independent audit of the city's use of the special taxes.
Additionally, Mayor Andrea Sorce pledged to convene a Mare Island subcommittee including Mare Island residents.
Councilmember Charles Palmares, whose district is located on the island, proposed a temporary freeze on an existing 2 percent annual increase to the special tax.
The freeze would have represented a savings of between $700 and $1,200 yearly to Mare Island residents, according to Palmares.
"That means a lot for these residents," the council member said.
However, consulting attorney James Wawrzyniak of Jones Hall, a municipal finance law firm, said. "The law says the maximum special tax on residential (properties) shall be increased at two percent per year and you shall levy at the maximum if you need the money."
Susan Goodwin of Goodwin Consulting, the city's tax consultant for over 20 years, agreed with Wawrzyniak. She said of the special tax, "It's kinda 'out there,' and I've worked on hundreds of them," responding to an earlier criticism of the city's special tax.
Palmares said, "So the long and short is, we can't do it."
The 322 homeowners on the island have been paying thousands of dollars more per year in taxes than other Vallejo homeowners and have been seeking some form of relief since 2012.
"I want to acknowledge that the residents have a right to be upset and frustrated," said Mayor Andrea Sorce. "I don't believe that frustration has ever been acknowledged," to prolonged applause from approximately 60 Mare Island residents present.
"You all bought your homes with the vision that the special taxes would sunset when the development happened. And the development didn't happen, and here we all are 25 years later," the mayor said.
In 2002, the city and developer Lennar created the special tax district to fund police and fire services on the island. (Lennar has since departed; the land is now owned by the Mare Island Company.)
While people were told about the higher taxes when they bought their homes, the taxes were supposed to cease as new developments were built, generating more revenue. However, development didn't proceed as fast as expected, and the taxes remain.
"We are responsible citizens. We don't want the tax eliminated altogether. We just want some degree of relief," said resident Sherianne Grimm in a presentation to the council replete with background information, statistics, data and specific proposals.
Grimm is a member of the Mare Island Special Tax Elimination Alliance, a volunteer advocacy group dedicated to reforming the special taxes, which are technically Community Facilities District, or CFD, taxes.
Grimm, her fellow Mare Island resident Daniel Boone, and other residents have been addressing various City Councils during public comment, meeting with council members, and otherwise pursuing an equitable solution for over a decade -a fact acknowledged by council members during the meeting.
In order to keep the meeting from stretching into the early hours of the morning, Grimm and Boone made a presentation to the council instead of the dozens of Mare Island attendees, each addressing the council individually.
Among other things, Grimm asked that the council approve Palmares' freeze request. She also asked that the council form a Mare Island City Council subcommittee so Mare Island residents could have input into decision-making and problem-solving.
Boone asked the council to expedite reform of the special taxes - a project he dubbed "The Mare Island CFD Project." This would include tracking and reporting staff time spent on the project, because, he said, the city can be reimbursed by the developer.
He also asked that the city propose the names of at least three law firms and three consultants to work with the city to establish the new, reformed special taxes. He requested that these actions be performed within 60 days.
"The new CFD process can be started at any time," Goodwin said.
"What needs to be present are the building blocks. Any CFD locks in place a formula that cannot -with just a few exceptions -be changed in any way," she said.
"Two things are needed to calculate it: the service costs, that's the numerator, and the denominator is the land uses that are going to be paying those taxes," Goodwin added.
"Until those two items are known with some certainty, it's going to be hard to calculate the maximum tax," she said.
There are actually three separate special taxes. The city's staff report on the matter notes that the city agreed to halt the tax levy for one of them, "resulting in a cost savings to each residential property on the island between $300 and $600 per year," according to the staff report.
The city has also removed 50 percent of the costs associated with the maintenance of the bridge from the (special tax) budget and transferred that cost to the general fund, resulting in payments toward those costs from the General Fund of approximately $200,000 to $250,000 per year, the staff report asserts.
However, the funds from the contribution only benefited the commercial entities -the businesses -on the island because of the way the special tax is structured.
During Monday's meeting, participants noted that it is not only Mare Island residents who use the bridge.
According to the staff report, the approximately $2.1 million generated this fiscal year from Mare Island, such as property tax, sales tax, and utilities taxes, was lower than the approximately $5.2 million in city services budgeted to the island. The staff report asserts that eliminating the special tax -something Grimm and Boone said they did not support - would mean a $3 million loss to the general fund.
The special tax levy in the current fiscal year brought in $2,748,239. Approximately 35 percent of this total ($957,896) was levied on residential property, and the remaining 65 percent was levied on non-residential property ($1,790,343), according to the staff report.
After Boone spoke, Councilmember Alexander Matias asked Daniel Boone, "What is the status of the request that you made to the state controller regarding (the special tax)?"
Matias was referring to the fact that in February 2024 - over two years ago - the alliance sent a letter to State Controller Malia Cohen asking her to conduct an audit of the city's accounting of the tax.
Boone replied, "Silence."
As the discussion continued, "I think the council should support a resolution to the state controller's office following up on the request to do an audit of those funds going back 20-some years," Matias said.
Additionally, "I would like to see the creation of an enhanced district over the commercial quarters of Mare Island," the council member said.
"I do want to figure out additional creative ways to raise money," he added.
The council voted in favor of the two suggestions and to further explore a possible special tax freeze during budget deliberations. The vote was unanimous, with Councilmember Tonia Lediju absent.
In an interview, Grimm said an important takeaway was that Goodwin had acknowledged that the special tax is problematic "and unfair to residents.
"Yet the city staff hasn't even attempted to fix it in that time. Instead they justify taking offsetting revenue for their own use, knowing it could have reduced the tax and kept it reasonable. The actions of city staff do not demonstrate good stewardship," Grimm said.
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This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 7:19 PM.