Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson's real estate transfer tax is a good idea

Proceeds from the tax will fund increases in spending to address homelessness

I recently wrote the Chicago Tribune a letter criticizing their hyperbolic dismissal of Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson's proposal to tax high-value real estate sales at higher rates than average property sales and to set aside the proceeds to fund increases in programs that will reduce homelessness. The Trib published the letter on November 27. Here it is:

 

In a recent editorial, the Tribune Editorial Board argued, without evidence, that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s real estate transfer tax plan will cause major property owners in the city to panic and sell their properties as quickly as they can. In “Owners are scrambling to unload high-profile buildings. Is this a backlash to Mayor Johnson’s ‘mansion tax’?” (Tribune, 11/15/23), the editorial board also adds, again without evidence, that the recent mandated increase in tipped-workers’ wages, and a new city law creating legal minimums for paid time off, may have  caused the closing of a popular Michigan Avenue restaurant.
 
Here’s the problem: the editorial does not even briefly explore the possibility that the real estate transfer tax, which will dramatically increase the amount of money the city spends to address homelessness, could have any positive impact. But think of the benefits of funding long-term services aimed at eliminating homelessness. Who in the city, major property owners included, wouldn’t benefit greatly from such an increased investment in eliminating a fundamental social problem?
 
And are we seriously going to compare such a continuing social investment adversely to the one-time only increase in tax consequences to the very largest property owners in the city? Haven’t those owners all benefitted from years of city investment in infrastructure and from years of reduced property taxes? Isn’t a big part of the value of any major real estate property related to years of working people all over the city getting their jobs done, paying their property taxes, and driving Chicago forward?
 
Why would any property owner in Chicago leave now, just when the city is tackling chronic problems with genuine vision? Why would a property owner in Chicago sell now, leaving all that future value behind in a city where homelessness has been eliminated?

Risking failure in the accounting of the soul

On Sept. 17, the Trib published a letter from me responding to Shmuly Yanklowitz's message about ethical self-review over the Jewish New Year:

Editor,

I appreciate Shmuly Yanklowitz’s op-ed (“This Rosh Hashana, let’s commit to repairing the injuries of injustice,” Sept. 11) elaborating the Jewish New Year practice of moral and ethical self-evaluation. “Jewish or not, we all find ourselves asking the question: How do we make restitution for our complicity in injustices that were beyond our control?” Yanklowitz wrote.

 

The reminder that the moment has come for each of us to consider our own responsibilities in a world deeply in need of repair couldn’t be more timely. On the same day, the Trib ran an editorial about the challenge that thousands of recent migrants present to Chicago’s willingness to truly embody the values of a sanctuary city. Will we, as the Torah commands, welcome the stranger?

 

Nor should we, as Yanklowitz points out, limit our self-examination to harms directly caused by our own actions or inactions. “We’re all, to one extent or another, complicit in historical injustices that we’ve indirectly benefited from…we are obligated to do what we can to fix [the damage].” Specifically citing Christian nationalism and white supremacy, Yanklowitz continues, “directly or indirectly, we often benefit from ideologies and movements that press people down.”

 

Unfortunately, Yanklowitz’s op-ed ignores one area that most American Jews prefer to leave unexamined. If one is truly making a complete moral and ethical self-examination, failing to consider the fate of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories, and the role of American Jewish congregations in supporting Israeli policies that oppress Palestinians, confiscate their lands, and subject them to lethal military occupation, means to fail in the “accounting of the soul” that the Jewish high holidays require of us.

 

Jeff Epton

Bronzeville