Our Fight to Overturn Measure ULA Is Coming to a Head
Our Fight to Overturn Measure ULA Is Coming to a Head
Re: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles v. City of Los Angeles
Measure ULA was ostensibly enacted by a simple majority of City of Los Angeles voters in November 2022 and took effect April 1, 2023. Measure ULA imposes a 4% tax on sales of real property over $5 million, and a 5.5% tax on those over $10 million. It is a special tax, as the funds are earmarked exclusively for housing and homelessness services. The Measure ULA transfer taxes are assessed from the “first dollar” and not on the profits of a sale, so that a $6 million real property sales would be required to pay transfer taxes at a 4% rate, or $240,000, for example.
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) and the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) jointly sued the City of Los Angeles to invalidate Measure ULA. Another third party filed their own lawsuit as well, and the two cases were consolidated by the court. Because an unbroken string of decisions by the Courts of Appeal have recently ruled that special taxes, if proposed by a citizen initiative, can be passed by a simple majority of the voters, rather than the two-thirds (2/3) required by Proposition 13, we did not argue that Measure ULA needed a two-thirds vote. That is, however, the argument in the other third party’s case.
HJTA and AAGLA have argued that, under the Los Angeles City Charter, local voters by initiative can enact only such ordinances as the City Council itself could enact. This is a provision commonly found in city charters, including the City of Los Angeles’ charter. Its purpose is to prevent the City Council from circumventing legal limits on its own authority by proposing otherwise illegal legislation as a citizen initiative. Since, under Proposition 13, the Los Angeles City Council is barred from enacting a real estate transfer tax as a special tax, our case argues that the city’s voters were prohibited as well.
The trial court ruled against HJTA and AAGLA and the other party, upholding Measure ULA on all theories. HJTA and AAGLA filed a timely Notice of Appeal, and the appeal was then fully briefed and oral argument was scheduled for early September. Then the parties received a notice from the Court of Appeal postponing oral argument and requesting supplemental briefing from all sides on whether the string of other cases correctly decided the two-thirds vote question.
Although the two-thirds vote argument was not the basis of the HJTA and AAGLA lawsuit, we as plaintiffs seized the opportunity to attack the reasoning of the string of other cases. Each parties’ supplemental brief is now filed and oral argument is scheduled for October 16, 2025.
About the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA): Serving rental housing providers throughout Southern California since 1917, AAGLA is a leading trade association and government advocate. With over 10,000 members representing more than 350,000 rental units, our community includes rental property owners, managers, developers, real estate professionals, and trusted vendors. AAGLA also offers comprehensive member-exclusive education and training, including weekly webinars, in-person events, Lunch & Learn sessions, and Certificate programs covering legal updates, landlord-tenant laws, insurance, and more.
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