Questions to ask your candidates
Your household can only trim so much. The rest is decided by the people you elect. Each question below starts from a public number about Mountain View's money, and none of them assumes the right answer.
Last checked Oct 20, 2026 · We don't endorse anyone. Figures come from the city's audited reports, adopted budget and fee schedule.
An open race
Three seats are elected citywide, and no incumbent is running: all three members leaving are termed out. Eight candidates qualified. You can vote for up to three, and the top three win four-year terms. With no voting records to go on, a candidate's answer to a money question is one of the few ways to tell them apart.
Who decides each part of your bill
Mountain View runs its own water and sewer utilities and contracts with Recology for trash, so the City Council sets more of your house costs than most councils do. Some costs are still set by other elected boards, and some by regulators nobody here elects.
| Cost | Who decides | Elected locally? |
|---|---|---|
| The 1% property tax | Fixed by Prop 13 (state constitution) | No one locally |
| Bond lines and the Whisman parcel tax | Voters, on measures put forward by school boards and the county | Yes, by ballot measure |
| Water and sewer rates | City Council, after a Prop 218 hearing where owners can protest | Yes: City Council |
| Trash rates (Recology) | City Council, in the yearly Master Fee Schedule | Yes: City Council |
| Utility users' tax (3%) and city transfer tax | City Council puts them on the ballot; voters approve | Yes: Council + voters |
| Police and fire | City Council, through the budget and labor contracts | Yes: City Council |
| Permit and heritage tree fees | City Council | Yes: City Council |
| Hetch Hetchy wholesale water (most of what comes out of your tap) | San Francisco PUC | No: its commissioners are appointed by San Francisco's mayor |
| Valley Water tax and its wholesale water | Valley Water board | Yes: its own elected board |
| Electricity supply (SVCE) | SVCE board: one council member from each member city | Indirectly, through the council |
| PG&E delivery and gas rates | California Public Utilities Commission | No: appointed by the governor |
For City Council candidates
1. Deficits ahead
The fact: The FY2026-27 budget is balanced with $107,000 to spare. The city's five-year forecast then shows deficits of $376,000 in FY2027-28, $2.5 million in FY2028-29 and $773,000 in FY2029-30. The city says closing them may mean pausing new positions and programs.
Ask: "If the forecast deficits arrive, which new positions or programs would you pause first, and is there anything you would never cut?"
2. Counting on empty jobs
The fact: The FY2026-27 general fund ($207.5 million) is balanced after counting on $10.3 million of savings from jobs that stay vacant during the year.
Ask: "Should the budget count on $10.3 million from vacant jobs? What happens if more of those jobs get filled than planned?"
3. Reserves
The fact: Unassigned general fund balance was $162.1 million at June 30, 2025; total general fund balance rose $27.2 million in FY2024-25. City policy sets a General Fund Reserve of 20% to 25% of budgeted spending, roughly $41–52 million this year.
Ask: "How much should the city keep in reserve, and what should happen to the rest: one-time projects, paying down pensions, or lower fees?"
4. Pensions
The fact: The city's two CalPERS plans were $236.9 million short at June 30, 2025: the general plan 81.5% funded and the public safety plan 76.5% funded. The city has paid $63.7 million extra to CalPERS since FY2014-15, and staff is exploring a pension trust, which Sunnyvale and Cupertino already have.
Ask: "Would you set up a pension trust, and how much a year should go toward the $236.9 million gap?"
5. Measure F: the hotel tax
The fact: Measure F would let the council raise the hotel tax, paid by hotel and short-term rental guests, from 10% to as much as 15%. The city estimates each 1% raises about $1.1 million a year, up to $5.2 million. It's a general tax, so the council decides how the money is spent. The city chose this measure over a general obligation bond, which homeowners would have paid on their tax bills.
Ask: "If Measure F passes, what rate would you set, and what would the money pay for first?"
6. The transfer tax came in short
The fact: Measure G (2024) raised the city's tax on property sales to $3.30 per $1,000 below $6 million and $15 per $1,000 above. It brought in $5.1 million in FY2025-26, against the $9.5 million expected.
Ask: "The transfer tax brought in about half of what was promised. What should the city plan around it, and would you change it?"
7. Trash pricing
The fact: Trash rates rose 6.5% on July 1, 2026. A 64-gallon cart now costs $106.60 a month in Mountain View, compared with $89.00 in Cupertino and $57.67 for Sunnyvale's largest cart. A 96-gallon cart is $159.90. The council sets the rates every June in the Master Fee Schedule.
Ask: "Mountain View's trash rates are the highest of the three cities. What's driving them, and what would you do about it?"
8. Council pay
The fact: Council members are paid $16,930 a year ($651.14 every two weeks) and the mayor $21,163. Sunnyvale pays its council $38,144 and Cupertino $8,917.
Ask: "Is the current council pay right, and should voters decide any change?"
Where all eight candidates stand on SB 79, single-family density, RV parking, a business tax on big tech, downtown paid parking and California Street lanes is covered by the PlayPotus Mountain View voter guide and its match quiz at playpotus.com/ca/mountain-view.
How Mountain View compares
| Mountain View | Sunnyvale | Cupertino | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population (2026) | 88,533 | 161,884 | 59,765 |
| General fund per resident (FY26-27) | $2,343 | $1,872 | $1,838 |
| Unassigned reserves per resident (June 2025) | $1,831 | $797 | $938 |
| Unfunded pension per resident (June 2025) | $2,676 | $2,587 | $709 |
| Police | City police | City Public Safety Dept. | County Sheriff contract |
| Utility users' tax | 3% | 2% | 2.4%, seniors exempt |
| 64-gal trash cart, per month | $106.60 | $57.67 | $89.00 |
| Sewer, per year | $738 | $934 | $826 |
| Council pay, per year | $16,930 | $38,144 | $8,917 |
Not apples to apples: Cupertino contracts for police and fire, so those workers' pensions sit with the County, not the city. Mountain View and Sunnyvale carry their own.
Also on your ballot
- Measure E updates the City Charter: gender-neutral wording, 60 days instead of 30 to fill a council vacancy, no full reading of ordinances, and other cleanups. Measure F is the hotel tax above. Details at playpotus.com/ca/mountain-view.
- School boards (Mountain View Whisman, MVLA high school, Foothill–De Anza), if on your ballot: "School bonds already add about 0.10% of assessed value to every bill here, and Whisman's parcel tax is about $261 for an average home. Do you expect to ask voters for another bond or parcel tax?"
- Valley Water board, if on your ballot: "What will Valley Water's wholesale rates do over the next five years, and why?"
How to use these
- Ask at a candidate forum, on a campaign's website or by email. A question with a number in it is hard to dodge.
- Keep it short: one fact, one ask.
- After the election, follow how each council member votes on money on the PlayPotus Mountain View city-hall page.
- City of Mountain View: FY2026-27 Adopted Budget (pp. 1-25, 1-56, 1-60, 3-13)
- City of Mountain View: FY2024-25 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (pp. 36, 38, 101)
- CalPERS funded status, June 30, 2025 · FY2026-27 Salary Plan
- Impartial analysis of Measure F · Mountain View Voice: bond dropped for hotel tax · Mountain View Voice: budget and transfer tax
- Master Fee Schedule FY2026-27 · City election information
- Sunnyvale and Cupertino figures: each city's FY2026-27 budget and FY2024-25 audited report, as published on PlayPotus city-hall pages.
Facts are checked against the public sources listed on each page. Rates change every year; each page shows when it was last checked. Individual bills are confidential in California, so personal numbers are estimates from public rates. Nothing here is legal, tax or insurance advice.