City of Albany officials on Dec. 15 discussed a possible real property transfer tax (RPTT) and a concurrent study of business-license taxes as ways to raise general-fund revenue.

Rainer Schwartz, the city’s finance director, told the council staff had modeled multiple approaches — from a simple tiered rate structure to a quartile-indexed system — and recommended the council give direction on a revenue target, the number and breakpoints of tiers, and whether to index rates to a rolling-sales measure rather than the consumer price index.

"If we can start to hone in on that target, the number of tiers and how we want to define the tiers and also confirm indexing, we can look at different means of indexing," Schwartz said. He noted staff excluded a single outlier sale (the Belmont Senior Living) from the revenue models to avoid skewing projections.

The city manager said staff would return with refined options once the council provided those parameters. Schwartz noted transfer-tax revenue has been sensitive to market cycles and that removing outliers produced more stable, realistic estimates.

In public comment, Kieran Shenoy, government affairs director for the Bridge Association of Realtors, urged the council not to move forward with a transfer-tax increase. "A transfer tax increase is not sound housing policy and… it is among the most volatile revenue sources available to local governments," Shenoy said, warning that such taxes can depress transactions and discourage mobility.

Council members debated technical details and equity implications. Council Member Preston Jordan said he favors lower rates for properties in the lowest-value quartile to reduce burdens on lower-wealth households and suggested indexing quartile boundaries to a rolling-sales measure so breakpoints move with the local market. Several members said a modest combined revenue target — roughly $1 million to $1.5 million across possible measures — could be a starting point while a business-license tax study runs in parallel.

Council direction: staff were asked to refine modeling for a quartile-based approach, prepare options for indexing and advance-notice timing (e.g., annual adjustments with a July 1 or Jan. 1 effective date), and coordinate the property-transfer analysis with an imminent business-license tax study.

What happens next: staff said the business-license tax study will gather renewal-season data in January, after which both analyses can be brought back to the council for further direction.

No ordinance or ballot measure was adopted at the meeting; the presentation and discussion were informational and a next-step referral to staff.

(Reporting notes: direct quotes and figures are taken from the council meeting transcript; transfer-tax revenue share in recent years was described by staff as "just under 10%" of general-fund revenue when large one-time sales are excluded.)