Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass quietly launched an effort at the California Assembly to alter Measure ULA, but the legislators working with Bass withdrew the proposal just before it was scheduled for a vote.

Measure ULA is a voter-approved transfer tax colloquially known as the “mansion tax.”

Bass sought to drastically reduce the tax rate on transactions involving apartment buildings, offices and shopping centers built within the last 15 years, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

By Thursday afternoon, the bill, co-written by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez and Assembly Member Tina McKinnor, had been withdrawn “hours before its first critical vote,” the LA Times reported.

Bass promised to bring it back.

“Due to a need for additional amendments and further technical changes, I’ve asked both leaders to continue SB 423 so that we can make further improvements this fall and reintroduce in January,” Bass said in an emailed statement.

Bass’ statement also says the bill was intended to remedy “unintended consequences of policies impacting families trying to rebuild after January’s fires.”

If the bill were to pass, a 4% tax rate on single-family home sales over $5.3M and 5.5% on homes sales of more than $10.6M would still stand, unless those homes were in an area, like the Palisades, where there had been a local emergency.

But while the bill’s text does include conditions that would allow a house lost in the Palisades fire to receive reduced taxes if it sells for more than approximately $5M, a significant portion of the bill focuses on giving a break on Measure ULA taxes to commercial properties.

Senate Bill 423 would drop the tax rate to 1.5% for commercial properties under 15 years old, according to the LA Times.

One critique of the measure is that the transfer tax, levied on property sales of more than $5M, is harming housing production and sales of multifamily housing.

The rushed nature of the bill alarmed some organizations that might, under other circumstances, support the bill. The California Business Properties Association, the greater Los Angeles chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association and the Southern California chapter of NAIOP wrote a letter in opposition to SB 423.

“This bill, drafted hastily earlier this week, contains potential legal vulnerabilities and technical flaws that may prevent it from effectively addressing the challenges created by Measure ULA’s high transfer taxes,” the letter says.

“SB 423’s transfer tax provisions may not apply to properties in the manner intended or could be blocked in court, which would create greater uncertainty in the L.A. real estate market and further harm the city’s economy and housing crisis,” the authors of the coalition’s letter wrote.

Bass’ bill was, in part, an effort to take away supporters from a proposed ballot measure by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association that would put new limits on local tax hikes and ultimately void Measure ULA entirely, according to the LA Times.

Any changes to Measure ULA due to SB 423 would only go into effect if the HJTA measure doesn’t make it onto the ballot next year.

SB 423’s proposal and flameout comes less than a week after the city’s housing department launched nearly $400M in affordable housing funding, the bulk of which came from revenue from Measure ULA.

“Let's focus on the deep need for affordable housing and homelessness prevention programs — and that's what Measure ULA funds,” said Joe Donlin, director of the coalition behind the measure.