The Things People Say
It is hard to be an elected with all the quotes said over the years, but sometimes you just wonder...
The amateur hour versus the big game starts to contrast more and more when you read the headlines and what happened over the last few days.
Housing Again
Yesterday, there was a piece in the Los Angeles Times discussing the famed “Mansion Tax,” AKA Measure ULA, which was put in place to add a “surcharge” to houses over $5.3 million in the City of Los Angeles. Turns out the quippy saying of these measures (i.e. Billionaire’s Tax) are not really the end of the effect. The law of unintended consequences shows up even beyond. The “Mansion Tax” does not affect just the “rich,” it affects everyone.
The article discusses how Councilwoman Raman, the same one who was touting the “historic rent control changes” back in November to address affordability is now learning about the effects of “supply and demand.”
Seeing that building is not happening because builders find the environs of Los Angeles too unattractive to invest in, she is quoted thusly as she was trying to get the City Council to create a “carve out” for newer developments.
Raman made a last ditch effort to get her proposal on the June ballot, telling her colleagues that the housing industry’s lenders and investors “are backing away from the city.”
“We are sabotaging ourselves,” she said, adding: “You can’t address a housing crisis with a policy that worsens our housing shortage. You just can’t.”
Wow.
It is rich to hear her realizing investors and lenders do not want to be involved with the City after she led the charge on lowering rents control, a major factor in why investors want no part of coming to Los Angeles.
Per the Wall Street Journal in December:
Investors had already been avoiding the Los Angeles housing market because of what they see as a harsher regulatory environment, said Greg Harris, a multifamily investment broker with Institutional Property Advisors in Los Angeles.
I guess reality is starting to show up. ULA is a capital gains tax on all real estate, not just mansions as it was billed, and Councilwoman Raman wants to exempt those properties built within the last 15 years from ULA, which was rejected by her fellow Councilmembers. Que the “exemptions” to the taxes for “favored constituents.” According to the Times, ULA has generated billions to be spent on affordable housing. Yes, the same affordable housing which should be driving down the price of rentals, but are not built. Rental prices are falling but not because of more supply- it is people are leaving. ULA is a slush fund whose purpose is now beyond what it was intended to do. Some too goes to education, because everything seems to go to these two causes these days. That same education budget which has doubled since 2007 and seeing a decline in enrollment.
Ah California.
Population Decline and Taxing the Rich
Speaking of economic declines and issues related to Los Angeles, it seems our population has stopped growing. Immigration has slowed California’s population growth, while the outflow of current residents continues, threatening our economy. Could it be that or the devastation our leaders have unleashed on our economy? Do we need more reasons for people to leave our State?
Let’s go back to ULA and see what these “tax the rich” measures create. Lower housing costs in Los Angeles where the need is desperate for additional sources of affordable housing are not happening because we need to fix the unintended consequences of shortsighted ballot measures billed as affecting the rich.
What will the Beat Their Ass, I mean Billionaire Tax Act bring to our fair state? Entertainment is leaving and Los Angeles is feeling it. Manufacturing has fled. The major growth industries are healthcare and government without technology and they both need engines to drive the use since government needs taxes and healthcare is a consumer based industry. We still have aerospace, but it is not enough at this point to drive the entire economy of California. Look at ULA and what it brought LA. Has the effect been worth the cost? We are already addressing it with the proponent of rent control saying that measure is not helping, but blaming ULA as the fix. Think about that dynamic as we discuss the BTA.
Rebuilding Altadena (buried the lede)…
Now let’s mention the favorite California Whipping Boy, Donald Trump, his ability to make headlines came closer to home yesterday. According to an Executive Order dated January 23, 2026 (not a coincidence), our President has directed the SBA and FEMA to create new permitting rules to override local jurisdictions, in an effort to get things moving faster.
While the legality of what the President wants to do will likely be challenged, the weakness of our position in California to stop what is coming becomes clearer when you look at the quotes from the Governor.
Per Politico, our reaction is the usual:
Newsom on Tuesday ridiculed Trump’s executive order as unnecessary and counterproductive. He reiterated the need for recovery dollars.
“Instead of finally sending to Congress the federal relief Los Angeles needs to rebuild from last year’s firestorms, Donald Trump continues to live in fantasy land,” Newsom said in a post on X. “Mr. President, you can actually speed up recovery by providing the assistance that survivors have been waiting for.”
Return to the usual point- “give us our money.” He did it in December, remember? They asked for $33 billion. They did nothing to help themselves. They even vetoed a bill to get a good source of money in, remember?
Read the EO, not the headlines. Go deeper. It directs the SBA and Department of Homeland Security (via FEMA) to get a suite solutions together. It was written (January 23) a day before the year anniversary of the meeting (January 24) on the tarmac in LA where the Governor and President discussed the money coming to California. It is a message- you had a year and now things need to happen. I truly think this EO is the first step toward what the federal response.
Since we are nonpartisan here and have given the info to California and the D’s, and our goal is to see Altadena and the Palisades rebuilt, here are a few ideas about how we can move forward to help us here:
Shared equity loans for homeowners in disaster areas up to a certain percentage based on the California Dream for All;
Doubling of capital gains tax exemptions for disaster victims on their primary homes for a period of 3 years;
Reviving solutions around AB 797 which was vetoed in October to give people the ability to sell land at a fair market price;
Temporary designation of opportunity zones for disaster areas for up to 3-5 years following a disaster declaration, legislation written here;
Catalyzing the banks for deploying Community Reinvestment Act without debt (utilizing an investment-based model), ideas of which are found throughout these Substacks.
This action is a real warning sign which our Governor and electeds might want to pay attention to. It is time to get real people.
The State should get its act together. We can do it within California if we want to. We have the money. We have the resources. We have to stop performative measures like ULA, BTA and other measures. We need to start doing. Stop with the sugar high politics, blaming the others, and start to make things happen. If you want to be President, start acting like it. Davos was not a good look. The Tweet above means you learned nothing. We have waited a year. Get serious. We have serious ideas here you can do. The politics of fighting Trump leaves an opening and this is yours of the making.
Get out the popcorn as we might finally start to see the real rebuild go into its next act.