"I'm fed up with the attitude of the city [towards taxes]," said Johnson who is retired but did environmental policy work for several cities in the East Bay.

Johnson is not alone. Anti-tax coalitions in both El Cerrito and Berkeley have built strong campaigns to oppose several measures on the upcoming ballot. What is different this time around is that many on board have supported such measures in the past.

"A lot of people are increasingly aware that we have to live within our means," said Marie Bowman. She supported tax measures in Berkeley in 2000, but has now joined an anti-tax group. "It's come to the point where the economy is not so good."

And nowadays, these tax-and-spend liberals sound like Republicans. They are upset that their cities continually turn to residents to shoulder recent budget deficits and they insist that local governments take a closer look at fiscal management before relying on residents to support more taxes.

"I believe the city is taking advantage to the point where it's breaking people's backs," said Bowman.

In El Cerrito, Johnson and others are fighting Measure K, which asks voters to ratify an already existing utility tax that generates $2.2 million for the general fund. They equate the city's push for the measure to crying wolf. There is no need to ratify the tax immediately, they say, at least until the city takes a better look at its expenditures.

John Ellwood, a professor at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy who teaches California politics, says he thinks the issue is much larger than local fiscal problems. People have reached a breaking point because of several years with a slow economy, he said. They are unwilling to shell out more money because they've already been hit with personal financial burdens such as rising health care costs, a rising cost of living and steady or declining wages.

"It's not just a question of efficiency, the personal costs are real," he said.

In a city like Berkeley, he also predicts that the campaigns are being run by middle-class property owners who are less concerned with the services that the measures will fund because they are not as reliant on them.

"When revenues fall, you inflict pain," said Ellwood. "You either lower services or raise taxes." The coalitions, he said, have had enough pain.

In Berkeley a group called BASTA — enough in Spanish or Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes in English — is targeting four taxes. One is a utility tax, another is a property transfer tax to fund youth services, and two are parcel taxes that would fund the library and Emergency Medical Services.

In the 2000 general election, three bonds and three new taxes were passed by Berkeley voters. One of them, a library bond for branch improvements, sailed through with 83.2 percent of the vote. Marie Bowman, a member of BASTA, said she voted for the bond but admits she had more confidence four years ago because the economy was better.

"I absolutely voted for it," Bowman. "When things were good, people didn't care. But now people have lost their jobs, they haven't gotten salary increases. When you are making that money you are much more generous."

Bowman said she and others will not vote for the taxes until the city allows them to voice their concerns about the size of the city staff and what they call unnecessary social services.

According to BASTA, Berkeley is the city with the lowest ratio of city employees to residents in the East Bay, with one employee for every 65 residents. Oakland, the next city on the list has one city employee for every 95 residents.

One of the services BASTA has flagged as unnecessary are the YMCA memberships for city employees. The memberships cost more than $300,000 per year.

"You can be a progressive city without breaking the bank," she said.

Kriss Worthington, a city council member, counters that the city provides "extra" programs so residents don't have to pay private companies as much, or more, for the same results.

"Berkeley provides your trash collection. The city also has rent control, which most of those other cities do not," said Worthington. "We also have our own health department which only three cities in the state of California have."

Jack Citrin, a UC Berkeley professor of political science who teaches courses on public opinion and California politics, said there is always a certain amount of opposition to any new tax on the ballot here in Berkeley. Like Ellwood, he said the surge is probably due to the bad economy.

He said that since Prop. 13 capped the state's main source of tax income in 1978, local governments have had to turn to other taxes for revenue, including income and sales tax.

"Those [taxes] are highly responsive to the business cycle, the economy," said Citrin.

If residents are not receiving raises because of the bad economy but have to shell out more on their income taxes, they will take a closer look at whether they want or need the services the taxes pay for, he said.