Election 2026 · City of Los Angeles

Proposition TE: Transfer tax exemption for Palisades Fire victims

Published September 29, 2026 · Updated October 2, 2026

Proposition TE would exempt some Palisades Fire victims from the City's Measure ULA tax on high-value property sales. The exemption covers homes damaged or destroyed in the fire that are sold by the person who owned them on the day the fire started, between January 7, 2025 and January 6, 2030.

Summary by CityHallPass, not the official text or legal advice. The official text controls: City Clerk's voter information pamphlet.

What would Proposition TE cost?

The City Administrative Officer estimates the exemption would reduce Measure ULA revenue by $35 million to $66 million through January 2030. That money goes to the House LA Fund for housing programs. The CAO says there is no effect on the City's General Fund.

The details

The question on your ballot

Shall an ordinance be adopted to provide a one-time exemption from the City's special documentary transfer tax (Proposition ULA) for residential properties that were damaged or destroyed in the Palisades Fire and are sold within five years of the date of the Fire?

What would change

The City Attorney wrote that “residential property” is left undefined on purpose, so the City can read it broadly and not shut out an eligible sale by mistake (City Attorney report, p. 2). The Palisades Fire damaged or destroyed about 5,620 structures, an estimated 5,495 of them residential, according to Building and Safety data cited by the Chief Legislative Analyst (impartial summary). The exemption matters only for sales above the ULA threshold. Sales at or below $5.4 million already owe no ULA tax (Office of Finance).

Measure ULA. City voters passed Measure ULA in November 2022 with 57.77% of the vote (County election results). It took effect April 1, 2023, and raised nearly $1.2 billion from 1,633 sales through April 30, 2026. After 8% for administration, 70% of the money goes to affordable housing programs and 30% to homelessness prevention (LAHD report, p. 2). ULA is a voter initiative, so the Council cannot amend it on its own except in ways the measure allows (City Attorney report R26-0042, pp. 2-4).

How it got on the ballot

The City Council placed TE on the ballot. It did not come from a petition.

• Oct. 9, 2025: Mayor Karen Bass asked the Council to let the Director of Finance grant a one-time ULA exemption over three years. Her letter said it would cover residents “who owned and occupied” residential property in the Palisades at the time of the fire (Mayor’s letter). Councilmember Traci Park’s motion says the proposal came from Steadfast LA, a group formed to help fire-area rebuilding (Park motion, Oct. 24, 2025).
• Dec. 5, 2025: The Council voted 12-0 to ask the City Attorney whether the exemption could be done (Council action; Budget and Finance Committee report).
• Jan. 16, 2026: The City Attorney advised that a court would likely reject a Council-adopted exemption, because it does not further ULA’s housing purposes, and that the Council should send it to voters instead. The report said almost all vacant Palisades lots had listed or sold for less than $5 million and were already outside the tax (City Attorney report R26-0042, pp. 5-6).
• May 10, 2026: The Housing Department estimated what several ULA exemptions would cost, using the Palisades Fire as its example (see Independent analysis) (LAHD report).
• May 22, 2026: Park and Councilmember Imelda Padilla moved for a ballot measure giving a one-time, five-year exemption, retroactive to Jan. 7, 2025 (motion).
• June 17, 2026: The Council voted 15-0 to have the City Attorney draft the measure (Council action).
• July 1, 2026: The Council adopted the ballot resolution 13-1. Eunisses Hernandez voted no and Curren Price was absent (Council action).
• Aug. 4, 2026: The Council passed the election ordinance 13-1, with the same no vote and absence. Bass signed it the same day, and it took effect Aug. 7 (Council action; Ordinance 189009). The Daily News reported there was no discussion (Daily News). Park was the only person who asked to write a ballot argument, and nobody asked to write one against. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson named Park, and the Rules committee approved 4-0 (City Clerk list of applicants; committee memo).

How the proposal changed. Bass proposed three years for owner-occupants. The ballot measure covers five years and any Jan. 7, 2025 owner of damaged residential property, whether or not they lived there (Mayor’s letter; City Attorney report, p. 2).

Other ULA changes that did not reach the ballot.

• In January 2026 the Council declined to send a broader ULA rewrite, with a 15-year exemption for new buildings, to the June ballot (Hanson Bridgett, archived copy; CalMatters).
• In June 2026 the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association withdrew a statewide initiative that would have wiped out Measure ULA and similar transfer taxes. In exchange, the Legislature placed ACA 22 on the ballot, now Proposition 43, which raises the vote needed for new voter-proposed special taxes and leaves existing ones in place (LAist; Daily News).
• On July 1, 2026 the Council shelved a 10-year exemption for new apartment buildings. Park cast the only vote against shelving it (Daily News; LAist).

TE is the only ULA change on the Nov. 3 City ballot (City Clerk list of the eight City measures).

What each side says

In the City pamphlet. Ballot arguments are the authors’ opinions. No City agency checks them for accuracy (City pamphlet).

Argument for, signed by Park, Bass, Harris-Dawson and nine others (argument in favor):

• Voter intent: ULA “was never intended to penalize survivors who lost everything in a declared disaster.”
• Need: after insurance fights and rising rebuilding costs, many survivors face a choice between costs they cannot afford and selling the property they lost.
• Scope: TE “does not repeal ULA or create a loophole for investors or speculators.” It is a one-time exemption for owners of residential property, “including multi-family buildings.”

No argument against was submitted, so there are no rebuttals (City pamphlet).

Outside the pamphlet.

• Park: “Putting this tax on these folks who are trying to recover and reckoning with the fact that some of them just aren’t coming home, is just unspeakably cruel.” She said it applies “in very narrow circumstances to original owners and first transactions” (LAist; Daily News).
• Hernandez, the only no vote: “Any exemption should only be for homeowners whose primary residence was destroyed, and people who genuinely need help rebuilding, not LLCs, investors or people with a portfolio of properties” (LAist). She also said she does not support “creating another loophole for the ultra wealthy while reducing funding for affordable housing, homelessness prevention and tenant protections” (Daily News).
• Bass, in her 2025 letter: buyers of Palisades homes were “factoring in the cost of Measure ULA to make lower than market value offers,” which she said left lots empty and slowed rebuilding (Mayor’s letter).

Checking the main factual claims against official records.

Who supports and opposes it

Supporters

• Signers of the argument in favor: Councilmember Traci Park (CD 11), Mayor Karen Bass, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, State Sen. Ben Allen, Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (printed “Erwin” in the pamphlet), LAUSD board member Nick Melvoin, Ernesto Medrano of the LA/OC Building & Construction Trades Council, Favian Guillen of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, and Allison Holdorff Polhill, president of the Pacific Palisades Community Council. A signer’s title is for identification only (argument signers).
• Councilmember Imelda Padilla co-authored the motion (motion).
• Thirteen councilmembers voted to place it on the ballot. A vote to place a measure is not an endorsement (Council action).

Opponents

• Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez voted against placing it on the ballot both times and said the exemption should be limited to primary residences (Council action; LAist).
• No person or group asked to write the argument against (City Clerk list of applicants).

Editorial boards and columnists. We found no LA Times or Daily News editorial board position on TE as of Sept. 30, 2026. Daily News columnist Susan Shelley, who is also spokesperson for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, wrote “Yes to that” in her ballot guide (Daily News, Sept. 29, 2026).

Parties and other groups. We found no published position from the Los Angeles County Democratic or Republican parties, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters or the United to House LA coalition that campaigned for ULA, as of Sept. 30, 2026.

Money for and against

No committee has formed to support or oppose TE. The City Ethics Commission’s election totals show $0 raised, $0 spent and no independent spending for or against it (City Ethics election totals). The City’s list of campaign statements filed through the Sept. 19, 2026 reporting period includes no committee named for TE (City campaign statements filed). We checked both on Sept. 30, 2026.

Independent analysis

The City’s official analyses are the Chief Legislative Analyst’s impartial summary (City pamphlet) and the City Administrative Officer’s financial impact statement (City pamphlet). We found no report on TE from the City Controller as of Sept. 30, 2026.

Cost estimates

Source: CAO financial impact statement; LAHD report, pp. 7-11. LAHD’s figures are based on a forecast of $502.2 million in ULA revenue a year.

Spread evenly over the five-year window, the CAO range works out to about $7 million to $13 million a year. That is our calculation, not the City’s. It sits near LAHD’s narrower scenario. LAHD modeled drafts that differed from the final text, and it warned that disaster exemptions can cause “abrupt and severe reductions” in revenue that make staffing and contracts harder to keep steady (LAHD report, p. 15).

ULA revenue from Pacific Palisades

City data list every ULA payment by ZIP code and property type. For ZIP 90272 (Pacific Palisades), from May 2023 through May 2026:

Source: Revenue Generated by Measure ULA, analyzed by CityHallPass.

The data do not show which sales involved fire-damaged property or a Jan. 7, 2025 owner, so the $26.1 million is not the refund amount. It is an upper bound for refunds from this ZIP code only. Some damaged property lies outside 90272.

If it passes

• When it starts. The ordinance does not set its own effective date. Sales back to Jan. 7, 2025 qualify, and refund deadlines start running on the effective date (ordinance Sec. 21.9.17(c)-(d)).
• Verification. Building and Safety must verify the damage. The City has not published how owners will apply (ordinance Sec. 21.9.17(a)(2)).
• Refunds. The Director of Finance issues refunds under the existing refund process in Municipal Code Sec. 21.9.10 (ordinance Sec. 21.9.17(d)). Refunds come out of the House LA Fund (CAO statement).
• End date. The exemption stops applying to sales after Jan. 6, 2030 (ordinance Sec. 21.9.17(c)).
• Other disasters. TE covers only the Palisades Fire. A future disaster would need its own measure (ordinance Sec. 21.9.17(a)(1)).
• Legal challenges. We found no announced challenge. If one part is struck down, the rest stays in force (ordinance Sec. 2).

Key moments

We found no debate or forum focused on TE in news coverage or City records as of Sept. 30, 2026.

• Bass asks for an exemption (Oct. 9, 2025). She asked for three years for owner-occupants, through rules set by the Director of Finance (Mayor’s letter).
• City Attorney says voters must decide (Jan. 16, 2026). The Council could not add the exemption on its own (City Attorney report R26-0042).
• Statewide repeal threat ends (June 25-26, 2026). The Howard Jarvis initiative that would have ended ULA came off the ballot in the deal that produced Proposition 43 (LAist; The Real Deal).
• Council places TE, shelves the apartment exemption (July 1, 2026). Both votes were 13-1 (Daily News; Council action).
• Final vote (Aug. 4, 2026). 13-1, without discussion (Daily News; LAist).

Polls

We found no public poll on TE as of Sept. 30, 2026.