One easy measure cities use is employees per thousand population where cities provide the same services. For instance, Oakland has twice the population as Fremont, but has four times the number of employees. The port is funded separately and Oakland does have their own libraries and the museum, but the difference is interesting.

Locally, the tri cities have had essentially the same ratio, but it may have changed recently. Fremont does have an advantage because of size.

I’d even bet that the average Bay Area resident contributes more per capita to their city coffers than does the average SF resident.