Measure United to Home Los Angeles has formally raised greater than $1 billion to deal with town’s housing and homelessness disaster, it was introduced Thursday.
Measure ULA took impact in April 2023 and imposed a 4% tax on property gross sales above $5 million, later adjusted to $5.3 million, and a 5.5% tax on gross sales above $10 million. Housing advocates have hailed the measure, whereas property house owners and different teams have criticized it as an overreach in taxation.
“At a time when so many Angelenos are fighting rising rents and financial hardship, Measure ULA is proving that native motion could make an actual distinction, constructing houses, conserving households housed and creating good, steady jobs,” Joe Donlin, director of the United to Home LA coalition mentioned in a press release.
“A billion {dollars} raised means a billion {dollars} working for the folks of Los Angeles. That is the folks’s billion,” he added.
The measure has raised $1,032,880,148.93 by November 2025.
Income from Measure ULA funds eight packages that help and educate renters, present authorized help for eviction protection, assist homeownership initiatives and assist finance the development of recent inexpensive housing.
In the summertime of 2025, town accredited a $425 million spending plan for Measure ULA funds. Beforehand, town accredited a $150 million ULA spending plan, a a lot smaller quantity, attributable to authorized considerations as critics filed challenges in court docket.
Critics of Measure ULA have argued the tax has slowed business growth and property gross sales and has harm the provision of inexpensive housing.
“It might be at a milestone of $1 billion in income after practically three years, however voters had been instructed it might herald as much as $1 billion in income yearly. It has fallen nicely in need of projections because of the impact of the excessive tax on the quantity and frequency of actual property transactions,” Susan Shelley, vp of communications for Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Affiliation, mentioned in earlier assertion to Metropolis Information Service.
In December, the California Courts of Appeals affirmed a previous court docket’s choice to uphold Measure ULA and rejected the lawsuit filed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Affiliation. The California-based nonprofit advocates for Proposition 12 and Proposition 218, which restrict property taxes and require voter approval for native taxes.
The affiliation has argued that Measure ULA violates each the state’s structure and the Los Angeles Metropolis Constitution.
The court docket in the end mentioned the California Structure offers voters the facility to enact property switch taxes, and it sustained Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom Decide Barbara Scheper’s choice to dismiss the affiliation’s case.
Shelley, in her assertion, mentioned the affiliation will proceed to press the enchantment. She added, “HJTA’s attorneys consider the court docket obtained it fallacious and didn’t deal with the problems we raised.”
“Proposition 13 prohibited new actual property switch taxes above the 0.11% allowed by state legislation on the time, and it required a two-thirds vote of the citizens to cross native particular taxes,” Shelley continued in her assertion.
“The court docket’s choice opens the door for brand spanking new native actual property switch taxes anyplace within the state to be positioned on the poll by initiatives from particular curiosity teams, and these measures will evade the constitutional requirement for approval by two-thirds of native voters, passing with the narrowest majority.”
The affiliation is working to qualify an initiative constitutional modification for the November 2026 poll that can repeal Measure ULA and different actual property switch taxes increased than 0.11% by closing court-created loopholes in Proposition 13.
The petition for the Native Taxpayer Safety Act to Save Proposition 13 is accessible at SaveProp13.com.
