CHICAGO Voters in Chicago have decided against imposing a one-time real estate tax on properties valued at more than one million dollars in order to fund services for homeless individuals.
In his first term as mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, who was a proponent of the so-called "mansion tax," has suffered a serious defeat.
Those properties with a value of more than one million dollars would have been subject to a real estate transfer tax that would have been gradually increased under the idea.
According to estimates provided by supporters, it would have raised one hundred million dollars yearly for homeless services, including mental health treatment. On any given night, there are around 68,000 persons looking for shelter in the city of Chicago.
Additionally, the proposition proposed a reduction in the transfer tax on properties that are valued at less than one million dollars. This category accounts for the great majority of property sales in the third-largest city in the United States.
On the grounds that the tax unfairly targets commercial properties and businesses at a time when the downtown area is still recovering from the COVID-19 outbreak, opponents, notably real estate associations, advanced this argument.
In the beginning, they were successful in their effort to challenge the act on constitutional grounds; however, the decision was reversed by an appeals court. The motion for an appeal that they submitted was denied by the Supreme Court of Illinois.
Voters in cities such as Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Los Angeles have supported measures that are comparable to those that have been proposed.
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