A proposal to temporarily pause the mansion tax for property owners in the Pacific Palisades has new legs a month after Mayor Karen Bass first floated the idea in a letter to the city council.
On Monday, the Ad Hoc Committee for LA Recovery approved a motion asking the City Attorney to report back in 30 days on the feasibility of the one-time carveout of the Measure United to House L.A. tax. The update effectively pushes the issue into 2026, the earliest property owners could have clarity on the matter.
The proposal — if passed in any form — would be the first time a swing at getting the tax modified has landed, and could spell implications for real estate dealmaking more broadly.
Voters passed Measure ULA as a November 2022 ballot measure that applies a 4 percent tax on property sales starting at $5.3 million and 5.5 percent on trades of $10.6 million or more.
So far, the more than $880 million generated by the tax has been funneled to programs aimed at homelessness prevention, including eviction defense services and rental assistance, in addition to building affordable housing.
While the commercial and residential industries have blamed the tiered tax for casting a pall on deal flow and development, ULA has more recently been singled out as a hurdle to getting the Palisades — a community that’s part of the City of Los Angeles — rebuilt following January’s Palisades Fire in which 5,500 residential buildings were destroyed in the community.