Budget Explorer · City of Oakland

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Oakland, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Jun 30, 2024. City of Oakland's own FY2027 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 431K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$2.20B

$5,100 per resident

Total spending

$2.16B

$5,006 per resident

Spending per resident

$5,006

68th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$1.50B

$3,481 per resident · 42nd percentile of 70

Own-source share

89%

84th percentile of 71

Capital share

12%

29th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$2.20B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$542M25%
General sales tax$91M4%
Selective sales taxes$255M12%
License & other taxes$210M10%
Federal aid$103M5%
State & local aid$131M6%
Charges & fees$655M30%
Interest, fines, other$208M9%

Own-source share of general revenue 89% · federal aid 5% · property tax is 49% of taxes

Where it goes

$2.16B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Public safety$695M32%
Transportation$529M25%
General government$391M18%
Environment & housing$251M12%
Health & hospitals$135M6%
Culture & recreation$88M4%
Interest on debt$65M3%
Transfers to other governments$788K0%
Public welfare$25K0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Police protection	Public safety	$346M	$2.1M	$348M
Central staff services	General government	$270M	$232K	$270M
Highways	Transportation	$117M	$121M	$238M
Fire protection	Public safety	$197M	$1.6M	$199M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$104M	$89M	$192M
Air transportation	Transportation	$176M	—	$176M
Protective inspection & regulation	Public safety	$149M	—	$149M
Health	Health & hospitals	$135M	$569K	$135M
Sea & inland ports	Transportation	$102M	—	$102M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$58M	—	$58M
Libraries	Culture & recreation	$47M	$645K	$48M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$40M	$306K	$40M
General public buildings	General government	$0	$33M	$33M
Financial administration	General government	$32M	$93K	$32M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+6% over 2 yrs

$2.08B → $2.20B

Spending

+23% over 2 yrs

$1.75B → $2.16B

Debt outstanding

-10% over 2 yrs

$1.67B → $1.50B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Oakland	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$5,006	$3,741	68th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$5,100	$3,548	68th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$2,550	$1,328	84th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$3,481	$3,865	42nd	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	89%	81%	84th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	5%	7%	35th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	12%	18%	29th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	3%	4%	36th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	0.68×	1.05×	26th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 062001123093 (Oakland City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · FY2027

City of Oakland's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 28 departments.

$2.20B total

Police$411M19%
Non-Departmental$338M15%
Fire$244M11%
Public Works$201M9%
Capital Improvement Program$198M9%
Human Services$124M6%
Housing & Community Development$123M6%
Transportation$95M4%
City Administrator$68M3%
Planning & Building$62M3%
Finance$52M2%
Library$50M2%
All other (16)$232M11%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 233-234) — all funds, second year of the adopted biennial budget.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
FY2026-27 is the second year of the biennial budget Oakland adopted in June 2025; no midcycle revision had been posted when this was captured.
Includes the capital improvement program and non-departmental spending, which are not departments.
Oakland's site refuses a plain download and needs browser-style request headers.
Source: FY2025-27 Adopted Biennial Budget (All Funds Expenditures by Department) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-13. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Oakland's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Oakland capacity assessment.