What you need to know about Bring Chicago Home

Ken Justus wears a sign that reads,” Vote Yes” as he and fellow bicyclists arrive at an early voting polling place in the Martin Luther King Community Service Center, 4314 S. Cottage Grove Ave. on Saturday, March 16, 2024, in Chicago. The group, calling the ride “Roll to the Polls for Bring Chicago Home,” rode from 1801 S. Indiana Ave. to the location to campaign for and vote “yes” on the Bring Chicago Home real estate transfer tax referendum.

Those who oppose the measure include the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago, the Chicagoland Apartment Association and the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance. The groups argue that if the referendum passes, it will dampen sales in an already-fragile market and say the city does not have concrete plans for how to spend the money.

The Johnson administration last summer devised a proposal that establishes three tax brackets: for properties under $1 million, between $1 million and $1.5 million, and above $1.5 million. Backers estimate 93% of sales would be subject to the lower tax rate, while larger commercial properties such as offices, large apartment buildings, stores and industrial sites would shoulder a much bigger burden. Properties with agreements to provide affordable housing will be exempt from the increases.What is the referendum’s legal status?

But opponents could still dispute the referendum results after Election Day, legal experts warn. Attorney Michael Forde said, “The court’s opinion said nothing about the merits of the case one way or the other. It just said that it was brought too soon. … That’s an understatement to say there’s an opening to challenge it after the fact.

A recent Civic Federation analysis found the city ended 2023 with $140.5 million in those receipts, a roughly 36% difference. “Commercial real estate sales in the Chicago area were down 44% in 2023 from the prior year,” the Civic Federation analysis pointed out, with downtown seeing “vanishingly few sales,” and much lower sale prices than a decade ago. They argue the city has not fully accounted for how the new charge might affect investment.

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