Los Angeles City Council Candidates Clash Over Mansion Tax, Housing Density and Minimum Wage

Two candidates vying for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council are presenting sharply divergent strategies to address the city’s intertwined housing and homelessness crises, centering their debate on whether to roll back a controversial property transfer tax or expand tenant protections and labor wages.

The dispute over Measure ULA, the 2022 voter-approved initiative widely known as the “mansion tax,” has become a defining fault line. The measure imposes a 4% tax on real estate transactions exceeding $5.3 million and a 5.5% levy on sales above $10.3 million, directing the revenue toward affordable housing construction and emergency rental assistance to prevent evictions. While proponents initially projected the tax would generate roughly $900 million annually, actual collections have fallen significantly short of those estimates amid a broader slowdown in high-end commercial and residential real estate activity across Southern California.

Candidate Ugarte, who previously gathered signatures to place Measure ULA on the ballot, now argues the policy is actively deterring real estate investment and driving developers out of Los Angeles. He is calling for an amendment that would raise the taxable threshold to $10 million—a shift designed to account for surging construction costs—and exempt developers building affordable housing units from the levy entirely.

Ugarte’s proposed rollback reflects a growing tension within Los Angeles politics between progressive revenue-generation goals and the practical realities of a constrained development environment. The city currently faces a deficit of hundreds of thousands of housing units, a shortfall that regional planning agencies have repeatedly warned cannot be closed without sustained private-sector participation.

On zoning and density, Ugarte backs State Bill 79, legislation mandating that municipalities permit higher-density residential construction near major public transit corridors. However, he insists that expanding rail and bus infrastructure must precede large-scale housing approvals. He contends that prioritizing transit development will ultimately reduce household expenses tied to parking, auto insurance, and commuting, easing the overall cost-of-living burden for residents.

Candidate Mazariegos approaches the crisis from a different angle, arguing that preventing homelessness requires aggressive enforcement of existing municipal tenant protections rather than structural changes to real estate taxation. Los Angeles operates under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance and the statewide Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which cap rent increases and mandate just-cause eviction standards. Mazariegos maintains that landlords routinely violate these statutes through harassment and illegal rent hikes, pushing vulnerable renters onto the street before new affordable units can be built.

To increase the supply of permanently affordable homes, Mazariegos advocates utilizing publicly owned land to develop social housing—units owned and operated by government entities or community land trusts, entirely removed from the speculative private rental market. This model mirrors recent efforts in cities like Vienna and emerging pilot programs in other U.S. jurisdictions attempting to decouple basic shelter from market fluctuations.

Mazariegos also ties economic stability directly to housing retention. He proposes extending the $30 minimum wage recently approved for Los Angeles hospitality and travel industry workers to all employees within city limits, with future increases automatically indexed to the Consumer Price Index. Currently, the general minimum wage in Los Angeles adjusts annually based on a regional inflation metric but remains substantially lower than sector-specific mandates enacted for Olympic-related preparations and hotel worker protections.

Both candidates agree that Los Angeles cannot build its way out of the current emergency without addressing underlying economic pressures, but their legislative priorities point toward fundamentally different theories of urban governance. The outcome of the race will determine whether the City Council moves to restructure its primary housing revenue engine or doubles down on regulatory enforcement and wage expansion.

The Los Angeles City Clerk’s office has certified both candidates for the upcoming municipal ballot, with early voting scheduled to begin next month.