Mansion tax reform pulled

State bill could be reintroduced next year

David Wagner covers housing in Southern California, a place where the lack of affordable housing contributes to homelessness.

Published September 11, 2025 3:14 PM

Supporters of the United To House L.A. initiative gather to deliver signatures for their proposed November ballot measure.

Supporters of the United to House L.A. initiative gathered to deliver boxes full of signatures for the November 2022 ballot measure that passed the city's "mansion tax."

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David Wagner/LAist

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Topline:

Less than two days after state lawmakers unveiled plans to put new limits on a controversial real estate tax in the city of Los Angeles, they have now withdrawn the bill. The decision means that efforts in Sacramento to reform L.A.’s voter-approved “mansion tax” will not advance by the end of the state legislative session Friday.

Why reforms are failing to advance: State senators Lena Gonzalez and Tina McKinnor released a joint news statement Thursday saying their bill “required additional clarifying amendments that were not possible due to end-of-session deadlines.” They said the city’s tax “is an important tool to address Los Angeles’ housing and homelessness crisis.” But they vowed to re-introduce legislation in January to rein in parts of the policy critics say are causing development to plummet at a time when the city is falling far short of its housing production goals.

How the tax works: Over nearly 2 1/2 years, the policy has collected $830 million by taxing the sale of real estate priced at $5 million or more. The tax rate tops out at 5.5%. It applies not just to palatial single-family homes but also to apartment buildings and other commercial properties. The bill introduced this week would have capped the tax rate at 1.5% for apartment buildings and other commercial properties built within the last 15 years. It also would have also included carve-outs for single-family homes being rebuilt within five years of natural disasters such as January’s Palisades Fire.

Read on … to learn why L.A. Mayor Karen Bass asked California lawmakers to hold off on passing the bill.

Less than two days after state lawmakers unveiled plans to put new limits on a controversial real estate tax in the city of Los Angeles, they now have withdrawn the bill.

The decision means efforts in Sacramento to reform L.A.’s voter-approved “mansion tax” will not advance by the end of the state legislative session Friday.

California senators Lena Gonzalez and Tina McKinnor released a joint news statement Thursday saying their bill “required additional clarifying amendments that were not possible due to end of session deadlines.”

They said the city’s tax “is an important tool to address Los Angeles’ housing and homelessness crisis.” But they vowed to re-introduce legislation in January to rein in parts of the policy critics say are causing development to plummet at a time when the city is falling far short of its housing production goals.

Mayor Karen Bass, who until now has avoided commenting on efforts to alter the tax, said she had asked lawmakers to delay passage of the bill, leaving time for more technical changes.

“My goal is to build more housing and make it more affordable while fixing unintended consequences of policies impacting families trying to rebuild after January’s fires. … I look forward to collaborating with local and state partners to continue this momentum,” Bass said in a statement to LAist.

Supporters of the city’s policy, which puts tax revenue toward tenant aid programs and affordable housing construction, said the bill’s proposals should be permanently dismissed.

“The voters have made themselves clear, and they should not lose their voice,” said tax supporters with the group United to House L.A. in a news release Thursday. “Tens of millions of dollars to fight displacement and homelessness must not be erased.”

What was in the now-stalled bill

Often referred to as the city’s “mansion tax,” Measure ULA was enacted in April 2023 after nearly 58% of city voters approved it in November 2022.

Over nearly 2 1/2 years, the policy has collected $830 million by taxing the sale of real estate priced at $5 million or more. The tax rate tops out at 5.5%. It applies not just to palatial single-family homes but also to apartment buildings and other commercial properties.

Listen 0:45

State lawmakers pull last-minute effort to reform LA’s ‘mansion tax’

Several recent economic studies have concluded the tax is decreasing development activity in the city relative to other parts of L.A. County, including the development of many affordable apartments.

A competing group of researchers has argued those conclusions are premature.

The bill introduced this week would have capped the tax rate at 1.5% for apartment buildings and other commercial properties built within the last 15 years. It also would have included carve-outs for single-family homes being rebuilt within five years of natural disasters such as January’s Palisades Fire.

Another part of the bill would have loosened financing restrictions that critics say make ULA-funded projects too risky to attract investment from banks and other lenders.

Advocates for increased housing development were frustrated with the bill’s failure to advance.

Dave Rand, a land-use attorney with Rand Paster & Nelson LLP., said the kinds of housing developers he works with will likely remain on the sidelines until the tax is reformed.

He said the policy “has been simply catastrophic for the production of new housing.”

“We're left with a lot of uncertainty about whether there's a fix in the future,” Rand said. “But it desperately needs to happen. Because until it does, we will not be achieving the level and degree of housing production that everybody in the city — regardless of their view about Measure ULA — believes is needed.”

Effort to kill every CA ‘mansion tax’ still looms

The state bill was introduced just as Measure ULA opponents had begun gathering signatures to put a measure on the November 2026 ballot asking voters to invalidate the city’s “mansion tax” and other, similar policies across California.

Gonzalez and McKinnor’s bill would have provisioned changes on the 2026 initiative being withdrawn, or failing to qualify for the ballot. The initiative’s backers, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, vowed to move ahead with their efforts regardless of legislative actions.

Susan Shelley, a spokesperson for the taxpayers association, said the group is still working to collect the 875,000 signatures they’ll need by late February 2026 to qualify for the ballot.

She said of the now-stalled state bill: “Tying Pacific Palisades tax relief to the failure of this initiative was depraved.”

Explore LA

Can't adopt a dog?

Pasadena Humane offers field trips and sleepovers

Makenna Sievertson covers the daily drumbeat of Southern California. She has a special place in her heart for eagles and other animals that make this such a fascinating place to live.

Published February 5, 2026 1:04 PM

A large black dog is standing up from a grassy field, with its face close to the camera. The dog is sitting next to a dark green backpack with white text that reads "We are on a field trip. You can adopt this dog. (It's okay to be excited)"

Lady Trixie, a roughly 2-year-old female Plott Hound mix, is available for adoption at Pasadena Humane.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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Topline:

For Angelenos who love animals but can’t commit to adopting a dog, Pasadena Humane is opening a pair of short-term fostering programs to the public.

Why it matters: Officials said time away from the shelter can reduce stress in animals, while providing important insight into their personalities that can help the dogs get adopted.

Why now: You can now sign-up to “check-out” a dog from the shelter for a hike in the forest, a visit to your favorite neighborhood coffee shop or a cozy weekend sleepover at home.

The details: “This is a fun thing for the dog,” Kevin McManus, spokesperson for the organization, told LAist. “But it's also an opportunity for people who may not see the dog in the shelter to get an opportunity to see that dog out in the world doing what they do best.”

Go deeper: One year later, Pasadena Humane is still caring for animals displaced by the Eaton Fire

For Angelenos who love animals but can’t commit to adopting a dog, Pasadena Humane is opening a pair of short-term fostering programs to the public.

You can now sign-up to “check-out” a dog from the shelter for a hike in the forest, a visit to your favorite neighborhood coffee shop or a cozy weekend sleepover at home.

Officials said time away from the shelter can reduce stress in animals, while providing important insight into their personalities that can help the dogs get adopted.

Kevin McManus, a spokesperson for the organization, told LAist that Pasadena Humane provides all the supplies for anything from a 15-minute Foster Field Trip to a three-day Doggy Sleepover.

“This is a fun thing for the dog,” McManus said. “But it's also an opportunity for people who may not see the dog in the shelter to get an opportunity to see that dog out in the world doing what they do best.”

How it works

You can sign up for Pasadena Humane’s Doggy Field Trip and Doggy Sleepover programs here.

You’ll be asked to choose a date and time for the trip, as well as the activities you have planned for the dog and your experience handling animals.

You can ask to take a specific dog from the shelter, but it’s ultimately up to the organization’s foster team to match you based on need, availability and comfort level.

Previously, the programs were available only for trained volunteers, including Kayla James, who’s been hosting field trips and sleepovers for more than a year.

A woman with long brown hair is kneeling in a grassy park next to a white and gray Husky wearing a harness.

James, who has done about 30 short-term trips through Pasadena Humane, told LAist that some people may be sad to bring the dog back to the shelter at the end of the day, but that short-term feeling is worth the long-term benefits.

“Having them in a different setting helps them so much,” she said. “Because sometimes they shine way better outside the kennels.”

For example, you may learn the dog hates dry treats but loves hot dogs, that they do great on stairs or can be calm hanging out at home, she said.

Taking a dog for its first pup patty from In-N-Out has been “priceless,” James said. She especially enjoys taking shy dogs to her house for a quiet day away from the scents and sounds of the shelter.

A woman with long brown hair is walking a Husky on a leash to her left on a paved sidewalk, with their backs to the camera. She's wearing a green backpack with white text on it.

“One thing that I loved being able to do, too, is finding out that a dog that was actually really reactive in a shelter, wasn't so reactive outside and was able to calm down,” she said. “That was really gratifying.”

McManus said the short-term fostering opportunities are perfect for people who love dogs but may not be able to adopt, possibly because of housing restrictions or long hours at work.

How can it help them get adopted?

Any details you learn about the dog and cute photos you snap can be shared with Pasadena Humane and may be added to the pup’s adoption profile.

James has posted social media videos of the dogs she takes on trips, which she said can help Pasadena Humane boost the animals' visibility for potential adopters.

A German Shephard dog is sleeping on a bed with its head on a pillow and eyes closed.

Cinco enjoying a snooze on a Doggy Sleepover.

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Courtesy of Pasadena Humane

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A brown and white medium to large dog is curled up on a gray fabric chair in an interior room.

Brodie was welcome to relax on furniture during a Doggy Sleepover.

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Courtesy of Pasadena Humane

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Some factors about an animal may be revealed during their time away, like can the dog sleep through the night? Is it crate trained? How about house trained?

“Having that real knowledge [is] really helpful in finding the forever home,” McManus said.

A dog's day out on the town

On Tuesday, I was matched with a dog named Lady Trixie, a 2-year-old female Plott Hound mix. We were equipped with a backpack full of treats, water, bowls, toys, poop bags, emergency information and a map of nearby places we could check out.

A large black dog walking towards the camera in a grassy field with its tongue hanging out of its mouth. The dog is wearing a red harness across its chest that's attached to a pink leash with white text that reads "adopt me"

The foster team told me upon pick-up that Lady Trixie has been sweet with staff and volunteers, but Pasadena Humane didn’t have much other information for potential adopters.

So we hopped in my car and headed to Lacy Park in San Marino with the hope of gathering some important info for Lady's Trixie's adoption profile.

She walked politely on the leash next to me and didn’t pull us through the park. She seemed a little shy at first, but kept calm and didn’t react around young children and the small dogs that ran by us.

We sprinted through the park a few times to get her wiggles out. Lady Trixie also snacked on some grass and stopped to sniff anything and everything she wanted.

A large black dog with its front two paws resting on a person's arm in a grassy field. The person is holding a pink leash in their hand, and the dog is wearing a red harness across its chest.

Lady Trixie seemed to be more interested in sitting on me than playing with toys or tennis balls. She even rested her head on my shoulder for a minute when we stopped for a water break.

It was hard to bring her back to Pasadena Humane Tuesday afternoon. But I'm the kind of person the programs are designed for — I’d love to add another dog to our family, but it isn’t the right time.

I was sad to say goodbye, but I was grateful to spend a calming few hours with her.

A large black dog is sitting in a grassy field with its paw extended into a person's outstretched hand. The dog is sitting next to a dark green backpack that reads in white text "We are on a field trip. You can adopt this dog. (It's okay to be excited)"

How likely is it that the L.A. Olympics wouldn’t go forward?

It’s extremely rare for host cities to pull out of the Olympics. Denver is the only city to withdraw from the International Olympic Committee after being chosen to host the 1976 Winter Games. Colorado voters rejected using public money for the mega-event, forcing the I.O.C. to relocate the Olympics to Innsbruck, Austria.

Even when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the Olympic Games moved forward in Japan, although they were delayed a year. The Games went on despite massive public discontent due to the ongoing public health crisis.

“Does the IOC have the power to decide that the games will go ahead?" one Japanese businessman tweeted ahead of the 2021 Games, according to a report from the Council on Foreign Relations. "There’s talk about huge penalties [if the games are canceled] but if one hundred thousand people from two hundred countries descend on vaccine-laggard Japan and the mutant variant spreads, I think we could lose a lot more.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Japanese taxpayers ended up spending $7.1 billion on the Games.

Canceling the Olympics would come with high costs to the city of L.A. Like in Tokyo, only the International Olympic Committee has the legal authority to pull out of a host location, according to its contract with L.A. The legal fees for L.A. canceling could be billions of dollars.

But the SAJE report questions if L.A. risks even greater exposure playing host than pulling out of its contract with the I.O.C.

"L.A. is looking at a potential fiscal disaster either way, and the decision on whether to try to cancel or renegotiate the terms of Olympic hosting depends on which you prefer to risk: billions of dollars in losses on hosting the Games, or billions in penalties for not hosting them," Neil deMause, the report's lead author, wrote.

What are some of the expenses tied to the Games?

LA28 currently has a $7.1 billion projected budget. The federal government has agreed to chip in $1 billion to pay for security and is being asked to contribute another $2 billion to pay for Games-specific transit plans.

The Olympics are intended to be mostly privately financed and "no cost" for Los Angeles. But the city of L.A.'s financial exposure is essentially unlimited. The city is on the hook for the first $270 million in losses, if they occur. The California Legislature has agreed to make statewide taxpayers pick up the next $270 million. After that, any additional financial burden will fall on Los Angeles taxpayers.

SAJE is calling on L.A. leaders to compile a list of all Olympics expenses that won't be covered by private organizing committee LA28, demand that LA28 provide detailed spending and revenue projections, and strategize over how to cancel the Games if necessary.

The report points to potential security expenses that could fall on the city of L.A. Details on how federal funds will be allocated for security aren't yet clear — leaving the city exposed to potential unexpected expenses. A contract between LA28 and the city also states that the Olympics organizers, not L.A., will pay for extra costs for public services in support of the Games, including policing. The details of that agreement are also still up in the air, though.

Negotiations between the city and the Olympic committee have dragged on more than four months past deadline. And some are concerned that if that deal isn't comprehensive, the city will be left with unexpected costs.

How can the city raise issues with LA28?

The city has little legal leverage to force new negotiations with LA28, but it does have the bully pulpit. The main public forum for the city to raise issues with the Olympics organizers is the ad-hoc City Council committee meetings on the Olympics.

That committee has seven members. At recent meetings, City Council members have demanded details on President Donald Trump's security task force for the Olympics and asked organizers to increase the contingency fund for the city as its budget grows. Three members of that committee have now called for Wasserman's resignation.

LA28 leadership are currently in Italy for the 2026 Winter Games. The next L.A. City Olympic Committee meeting has not been scheduled.

Education

College credit

CA wants colleges to count work experience

By Adam Echelman | CalMatters

Published February 5, 2026 12:26 PM

A close up of a person's hands with dark skin tone, holding and presenting a photo on a phone of themselves in U.S. army gear.

Laylah Rivers shows a photo on her phone from a 2016 training mission in Italy during her time as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army, in Culver City.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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Topline:

California’s community colleges are now giving college credit for students’ previous work experiences. The state has a goal of rapidly expanding access to these credits, though tracking progress on that goal has been difficult so far.

The backstory: Since 2017, California’s community colleges have slowly expanded the number of ways that students can get school credit for their prior work experience, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has made it a priority, in part by approving over $34 million in related state funding in recent years. By 2030, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office wants at least 250,000 students to have earned college credit for their work or other “prior learning” experience, and in January, Newsom proposed putting an additional $37 million toward it.

How is it going? Many colleges use their own internal methods to track the credits they award, so there’s no authoritative system showing how many students across the state have actually been served. The chancellor’s office operates a public dashboard, which says that over 40,000 students in California have received at least one credit for pre-college work or education in the past few years. Samuel Lee, a senior adviser to the community college chancellor who oversees the dashboard, said the real total is roughly twice that, though he couldn’t provide any exact figures.

Read on... for more about how a current West L.A. College student's experience is going.

Laylah Rivers had already been a paratrooper in the U.S. Army and worked at various tech companies across the West Coast. But when she enrolled at a Los Angeles community college at 31, she was just another freshman — alongside students nearly half her age.

Luckily, West Los Angeles College has a program that acknowledges students’ prior work experience. The college gave her seven credits, the equivalent of about two classes, after she provided a copy of her military transcript and evidence of computer courses she took while working at Amazon. “Of course, with 13 years of experience, I should get more credit for what I’m doing,” she said. “But I’m grateful.”

Since 2017, California’s community colleges have slowly expanded the number of ways that students can get school credit for their prior work experience, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has made it a priority, in part by approving over $34 million in related state funding in recent years. By 2030, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office wants at least 250,000 students to have earned college credit for their work or other “prior learning" experience, and in January, Newsom proposed putting an additional $37 million toward it.

But many colleges use their own internal methods to track the credits they award, so there’s no authoritative system showing how many students across the state have actually been served. The chancellor’s office operates a public dashboard, which says that over 40,000 students in California have received at least one credit for pre-college work or education in the past few years. Samuel Lee, a senior adviser to the community college chancellor who oversees the dashboard, said the real total is roughly twice that, though he couldn’t provide any exact figures.

A woman with dark skin tone, wearing a dark blue long-sleeve shirt with text that reads "West L.A. Wildcats." looks out of frame while standing in front of a building that is partially covered in shade.

Among the students who count toward this 2030 goal are those who gain credit by taking Advanced Placement, or AP, exams — which have existed for decades. What’s new is awarding students credit for work experience, such as computer courses or military training. Because it’s so new, “it’s taking the colleges a while,” Lee said. “Some are nowhere and some are really down the road.”

Historically, veterans have benefited the most from these credits, but students with professional experience in plumbing, first aid, foreign languages and hundreds of other skills can also qualify, either by showing an industry certification or taking an exam. At Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, for instance, students can get college credit for wine courses if they can prove sufficient knowledge in French, Italian or Spanish wines.

Just a few additional credits can save students over $14,000, according to one California study. These students are more likely to graduate, too.

Because she’s a veteran, Rivers’ education and living costs are supported by the federal government, including through the GI Bill. These benefits only last a few years so every class she can skip saves her time — and ultimately money that she can put toward her future education.

Want to get ahead in tech? Get a degree

Even without a college degree, Rivers was doing well in tech, making over $70,000 a year, first at Amazon Web Services and later as a support engineer at a startup.

California’s tech industry has been vocal about dropping degree requirements for jobs, but research by the Burning Glass Institute shows that employers still prefer college graduates, even when college education isn’t a requirement.

“Computer science is really male-dominated, white-dominated,” said Rivers. “I’m a Black woman, but it’s hard to get my foot in the door. Even though I have 13 years of experience, they move the goalpost.” When the startup she was working at was sold to another company in 2024, she enrolled at West Los Angeles College, hoping to eventually transfer to a four-year institution, get a degree and land a management job in the tech industry.

But Rivers didn’t know that any of her prior work could translate into college credits until months after enrolling, when a college dean noticed her military and computer science experience.

“I think it should just be built into the registration process instead of people having to find out about it,” she said. “It took me a whole semester to figure it out.”

A woman with dark skin tone, wearing a dark blue sweatshirt with text that reads "West L.A. Wildcats" poses for a photo near a sidewalk and green field with a soccer goal post in the background.

Laylah Rivers at West Los Angeles College in Culver City, on Jan. 29, 2026.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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A concrete building with signage on the side that reads "Technology Learning Center." There are trees in the background corner, slightly out of focus.

The Technology Learning Center building at West Los Angeles College in Culver City, where Laylah Rivers has taken computer and IT courses.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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Starting last fall, West Los Angeles College made it a requirement that all transfer-oriented students learn about opportunities to get credit for prior work experience, either during meetings with a college counselor in the first semester or at orientation, said Allison Tom-Miura, the dean of academic affairs and workforce development for the campus. “This is a big equity issue,” she said. “How can we help students from repeating courses that they do not need?”

In 2018, the state Legislature passed a law that would eventually mandate that every college adopt a policy for awarding students credit for prior learning or work experience, but colleges received little or no funding to implement it. They scrambled to create systems to assess students’ work experience and streamline the process of petitioning for credit, according to interviews with community college leaders across the state.

Administratively, the process is still tricky today. Students need to submit evidence of their work experience, which faculty then evaluate and translate into an equivalent course at the college. Most students gain credit by showing a military transcript, a certification or by taking a test, but sometimes, in more subjective fields such as photography, faculty assess a student’s portfolio.

Lee’s statewide system lists the skills and certifications that community colleges already recognize so that students can petition for credit more easily. But he said that only about half the state’s 116 community colleges are actively participating in the effort.

Getting all colleges on the same system

Often, Lee is on tour, visiting colleges across the state, sometimes meeting with a school six or seven times in an effort to promote his credit tracking system or otherwise improve the way they log students’ credits.

Last month, he sat on stage at a conference in Sacramento to present about the benefits of a shared tracking system alongside the interim president of Palomar College, Tina Recalde. Like many schools in the San Diego metro area, Palomar College has a high number of enrolled veterans and was an early advocate for awarding additional credit to them. In their joint presentation, Recalde said her college has given over 3,600 students credit for work or other prior learning experiences.

But that data doesn’t appear on Lee’s platform or any other public dashboard. Palomar College has its own system for processing the additional credits, which it created before Lee’s platform existed, said Nichol Roe, the college’s dean of career technical and extended education.

Soon, nearly all schools will have to begin logging information on the same platform. The Legislature approved a budget last year that guarantees $50,000 to every community college campus that wants it. In return, the colleges that receive the money agree to use certain aspects of Lee’s data system and to screen all veterans and incoming students for potential additional credits.

College of the Sequoias in Visalia said it doesn’t need the money and chose not to apply, according to its president, Brent Calvin.

Lee said that every other college applied for the funding by the deadline and that he would “gladly” make an exception for College of the Sequoias. “Our goal is not for them to meet the deadline,” he said. “Our goal is to get people funding and support.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Hey, LA listener!

The Brief

What was in the now-stalled bill

Effort to kill every CA ‘mansion tax’ still looms

How it works

How can it help them get adopted?

A dog's day out on the town

Keep up with LAist.

How likely is it that the L.A. Olympics wouldn’t go forward?

What are some of the expenses tied to the Games?

How can the city raise issues with LA28?

Want to get ahead in tech? Get a degree

Getting all colleges on the same system