Mayor Brandon Johnson’s bid to add a transaction tax on real estate sales of more than a million dollars failed. Yay! The “Bring Home Chicago” initiative proposed by the mayor was supposed to bring in millions to help the homeless. Now this is the mayor who spent millions on so-called “migrants” and that money lasted a few months. So why would anybody in their right mind let him get millions more?
I have nothing against trying to help the homeless. A lot of folks forget that Madison and Halsted streets used to be “Skid Row.” Back then, people could get a room to sleep in for a reasonable cost. But this city in its infinite wisdom has eliminated a lot of those locations. Remember when Uptown had lots of inexpensive SROs? Just like the transformation of CHA, they got people out of the way, but they had no plans as to where they should go. So when the people ended up on the streets, now the city wants to tax us additional monies to pay for the mess it created.
I have a suggested a real estate transfer tax that the city should look into. I’m an avid follower of real estate offerings. And when I see a regular bungalow that says it has six bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, that’s a warning flag. The house has been remodeled, most likely without a permit by a developer, whose skills at doing it are probably questionable. The remodeler makes significant cosmetics changes to make the house look pretty, while ignoring other changes that probably need to occur. Like increasing the electrical input into the house. Or updating the heating and air-conditioning situation to accommodate the changes to the air flow within the house. And the illegal addition of a bathroom up in the attic might be problematic should there be a water leak.
The city doesn’t get revenue when remodels are done and changes made without a permit. I know someone who pulled a permit for new windows and door and did a complete gut rehab. Calls to the city inspector to investigate were wasted as the city inspectors are not vigilant. However, at the point of sale when that real estate transfer is going to occur, that is when the city can realize a boatload of money. Because if the legal description of the house (based on records from the Cook County Assessor’s Office) doesn’t match the real estate listing being sold, a huge fine against the seller can be applied. So what will happen in essence, is that the seller will pull those permits to avoid the fines at closing.
The additional revenue from permits that were never purchased can be used to help the homeless. Now it’s a win-win for the city, the buyer and the neighborhood!