(The Center Square) – Voters in Santa Fe approved a mansion tax on Tuesday.
They approved a tax that will fund its Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Overall, 73% supported the measure, while 27% opposed it, according to SF Reporter.
Under the new law, homebuyers will pay a 3% tax on any amount of a home sale exceeding $1 million. Therefore, if someone buys a $1.4 million home, they will pay a 3% tax on $400,000 — a $12,000 tax. The tax will generate about $4.5 million annually for the city, according to SF Reporter.
Voters rejected a similar tax proposal in 2009.
Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber, a Democrat, gave the measure one of its more prominent endorsements.
“We’re attracting folks who can Zoom to work elsewhere and live in an outstanding place with great climate and culture and history and food,” Webber told The Associated Press. “We’ve become a magnet, and we don’t want to lose the local community that has lived here all their lives, or for generations, and to suddenly see that diversity give way to only higher-income people.”
Santa Fe Association of Realtors president Drew Lamprich was among those who opposed the measure.
He said it will hurt the local economy.
“There will be folks that decide to buy somewhere else, not liking the divisiveness of this element,” he told The Associated Press.
United for Affordable Housing, a PAC chaired by state Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, was the chief financial backer of the measure; it raised over $132,000 to support the measure.
The Santa Fe Housing Opportunity Partnership, a realtor-led PAC, led the measure’s chief opposition. The Santa Fe Association of Realtors contributed most of the money to the PAC.
