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Proponents of Measure ULA — the ballot initiative seeking to raise around $1 billion per year for housing and homelessness efforts in the city of Los Angeles by taxing property sales of $5 million or more — declared victory on Monday, saying the election results all but guarantee the measure will pass.
In the latest tally released by the L.A. County Registrar, the Yes on ULA campaign was leading by roughly 56% to 44%.
"We won this campaign because Angelenos decided that it’s time to roll up our sleeves and invest in proven solutions to our chronic housing and homelessness crises," Yes on ULA campaign co-chair Laura Raymond said in a statement.
Although the campaign is declaring victory, the results are not final.
L.A. voters have approved funding measures to address homelessness in recent years, including a $1.2 billion bond measure to finance new supportive housing construction in the city and a county-wide sales tax increase to fund homeless services.
In this election, Measure ULA asked voters in the city of L.A. to pass a new tax on the sale of multi-million dollar properties to fund affordable housing and homelessness prevention efforts.
Here's L.A. County's schedule for the release of new vote totals
Estimated time of the following releases is between 4- 5 p.m.
Supporters of the United To House L.A. initiative gather to deliver boxes full of signatures for their proposed November ballot measure.
(David Wagner/LAist)
If the results hold, Measure ULA's passage will implement a new "documentary transfer" tax on top-dollar properties starting April 1, 2023. Properties that sell for more than $5 million but less than $10 million will be subject to a 4% tax. Anything that sells for more than $10 million will be subject to a higher 5.5% tax.
Official estimates from the city peg the annual revenue from Measure ULA at anywhere from $600 million to $1.1 billion per year, depending on real estate market conditions.
In the run-up to the election, the measure’s advocates said their proposed “mansion tax” would only apply to millionaires and billionaires, and the vast majority of home sales would remain unaffected. They said it would create tens of thousands of new units of affordable housing and provide tenants with the assistance they need to avoid falling into homelessness.
Opponents included realtors, business groups and landlord associations who claimed the tax will ultimately be passed down to renters who occupy large apartment buildings and consumers who shop at large retail centers. They also questioned the city’s stewardship of homelessness funding, pointing to the city’s Measure HHH, a measure approved by voters in 2016 that has still not delivered the promised number of permanent supportive housing units.
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A Note On The Results
Keep in mind that in tight races particularly, the winner may not be determined for days or weeks after Election Day. In L.A. County, the first batch of results released includes vote by mail ballots received before Election Day, followed by early votes cast at vote centers before Election Day, then votes cast in-person on Election Day. This process is expected to wrap up in the early hours of Nov. 9. Then, additional results will be released following a schedule you can see on the county's site. In California, ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 8 are counted toward the results as long as they arrive within seven days of the election. Results must be certified by county election officials by Dec. 8.
If your mail-in ballot is rejected for any reason (like a missing or mismatched signature), your county registrar must contact you to give you a chance to fix it. In Los Angeles County, the registrar will send you a notification by mail and you have until Nov. 28 to reply and "cure" your ballot.
How We're Covering This Election
Early voters and mail-in ballots have fundamentally reshaped how votes are counted and when election results are known.
Our priority will be sharing outcomes and election calls only when they have been thoroughly checked and vetted. To that end, we will rely on NPR and The Associated Press for race calls. We will not report the calls or projections of other news outlets. You can find more on NPR and The AP's process for counting votes and calling races here, here and here.
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