In late 2022 Los Angeles Voted in the ULA Mansion Tax to “force millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share” on all real estate transactions over $5M which includes all residential, commercial, retail, industrial, office, land and multifamily real estate. The ULA initiative was sold as a new “Homelessness and Housing Solutions” tax to end homelessness and create affordable housing in Los Angeles. In reality, the ULA initiative was proposed by, among others, labor unions seeking to profit 4% on all sales over $5M and 5.5% on all sales over $10M regardless whether the seller made any net profit on the sale and/or whether the proceeds would be split among several, sometimes 10 - 20 family members, who are middle to low income earners. Instead of these funds being used to for the homeless crisis, the funds will actually be used to provide attorneys for tenants who are not paying rent to fight their landlords regardless whether they are employed and able to afford rent. The limited amount of homeless housing that will be built by the labor unions will cost at least $600,000 per unit which is about double the cost of building the same unit using large, professional building contractors that are non union. The narrative to help the homeless is an emotional trigger for all of us as we all want to help solve this horrendous crisis eating at the core of our beautiful city. Yet the city politics behind the narrative continue to cloud the facts and true intentions of the ULA initiative. All one needs to do is look at the amount of tax payers money collected for homeless and homeless housing and services over the past decade and reconcile that with what we see in our streets and on our sidewalks and parks everyday.
Today’s conversation is with Keith Fromm the lead attorney from Fight ULA (www.FIGHTULA.com) also known as the Newcastle Lawsuit which is one of the two lawsuits against the city of Los Angeles to overturn this unfair tax. The second lawsuit is led by well known tax payer advocate by Howard Jarvis whose lawsuit hangs on a single argument compared to Fight ULA whose claim has 17 different argument including the Howard Jarvis argument In this informative discussion, Keith and Danny shed light on the ULA landscape and the urgency to get behind FIGHT ULA so that Keith Fromm and his partners have the resources to continue to fight this case. Up to this point, Keith and his partners have taken this case on spec and have not been paid for their time and work. The hearing October 23rd on ULA is only the beginning of the ULA fight as there will be several more rounds of appeals over the next year or two, and if successful eventually a trial that very well could end up in front the Supreme Court of the United States. It is now or never.
To learn more about ULA and FIGHT ULA go to www.FightULA.com and/or contact Danny Brown a real estate industry advocate for Fight ULA.
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