Mayor Johnson's plan to ease tax burden on residents scuttled by real estate industry

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson had a great idea to raise tax revenues by taxing the sale of properties valued over $1 million. But he didn't anticipate the power of the real estate lobby

By Ray Hanania

PAID/Chicago taxes/ Monday March 25, 2024

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson had a great idea to tax the rich to ease the burden on the overburdened poor, and middle and upper middle class.

He proposed to increase the Transfer Tax, a tax placed on the sale of properties that sell for more than $1 million, while reducing the tax on the rest. The money would be used to off-set increased costs the city is being force to handled in caring for the city’s growing homeless population, a burden increasing because of the rush of “migrants” (also illegal aliens) who are entering America.

Since last summer, City has received more than 37,380 migrants, a majority from Venezuela but also from Mexico and other Central American countries where ife is so oppressive citizens ar efleeing and their governments are doing nothing to stop them.

The redirection of public funds to help the “migrants” has harmed programs to help homeless in America. Instead of boosting funds to help the city’s nearly 7,000 homeless, funding for homeless including more than 2,000 veterans, has been weakened by rampant inflation, especially in the wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Because Mayor Johnson believes in engaging the public in major decisions, he put the idea to a referenDum vote in the March 19, 2024 Illinois primary election.

It was a great idea but it wasn’t well thought out. The referendum was defeated at the ballot box in Chicago not by homeowners who would have benefited fromt he change, but rather because of a heavy push by the real estate industry and the influence many businesses have in property ownership who would have been impacted by the tax hike.