Property taxes ($202.6 million annually) and city sales taxes ($143.8 million annually) comprise the lion’s share of the City of Fresno’s revenue. Perhaps taxpayers should be more concerned about how these taxes are allocated. For example, $704,000 a day or $29,388 per hour or $488 per minute of your tax dollars will go to the Fresno Police Department (FPD) in the coming fiscal year to, many say, over-police the community.
One example is the over-policing of unhoused community members. Since the implementation of the harsh no camping ordinance in September 2024, more than 400 people have been arrested and many more have been cited, at great expense to taxpayers.
Booking costs alone could exceed $80,000 for the 400 arrests, and future court costs will be high. Policing and criminalizing our unhoused community members is expensive, cruel and actually increases homelessness…