, Columnist
Mansion Taxes Won’t Improve Housing Affordability
The policy is gaining in popularity, but the most direct way to address the high cost of housing is just to allow more to be built.
What’s not to like?
Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg
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From a purely political standpoint, a “mansion tax” is a genius idea. Who could be against it? Only swells who live in mansions, that’s who.
So it’s unsurprising that Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts favors a mansion tax to pay for more affordable housing in her state, a plan progressives passed in Los Angeles and Santa Fe and have been shopping around nationally. Although Chicago voters rejected a mansion-tax proposal in March, Healey’s advocacy is a sign that this idea isn’t going anywhere.