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According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago voters backed Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to raise taxes on more expensive housing to fund services to alleviate rampant homelessness. The vote was rejected.
The bill was voted on Tuesday, but was called by The Associated Press on Friday night, with 46.8% of the public voting yes and 53.2% voting no, according to the Tribune.
The “Bring Home to Chicago” tax could raise transfer taxes on properties valued at more than $1 million, and supporters say it would generate about $100 million a year in revenue.
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The city currently imposes a flat 0.75% tax on real estate sales, but the proposed rules would reduce it to 0.6% for homes valued at less than $1 million, according to the Tribune. For real estate worth more than $1 million, the referendum introduced a progressive tax system, with a tax of 2% for properties valued between $1 million and $1.5 million, and 3% for anything above that.
The money raised from the tax would go toward mental health care and other homeless services for the city’s roughly 68,000 homeless people, according to the Associated Press. Similar measures have been approved in Los Angeles, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Opponents of the measure say it will hinder commercial building owners and businesses with large properties, which are still struggling to recover from the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Associated Press. claims.
Commercial real estate across the country is struggling due to a lack of demand as more employees work from home and high interest rates on debt that developers are struggling to repay. Approximately $2.81 trillion in commercial real estate loans among U.S. companies are due by 2028.
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Chicago is also among the cities struggling with a huge influx of immigrants, and is evicting thousands of people from city and state shelters. About 37,100 migrants have arrived in sanctuary cities since 2022, straining housing and social service resources.
The city of Chicago did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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