Hollywood’s elite has evaded the “mansion tax”, passed by Los Angeles voters last year. This includes some of the most prominent names in Democratic Party fundraiser circles.

The ULA measure was implemented on April 1. Its stated purpose is to raise funds for low-income housing. Many of the wealthy and famous, who can otherwise be relied on to promote left-wing causes, avoided the tax.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Hollywood’s super-agent Ari Emanuel and other Hollywood heavyweights sold their homes for steep discounts in order to avoid paying additional taxes on homes over a certain value.

Some wealthy residents tried to avoid the “mansion tax,” which would have funded affordable housing and prevention of homelessness, before Measure ULA went into effect in April. Celebrities known for their humanitarian and liberal crusades sold, for whatever reasons, just before the tax was implemented.

Before the voters approved the measure imposing a 4% tax on all sales of property above $5 million, and a 5.5% tax on sales over $10 million, real estate agents and attorneys began to devise ways to avoid it. Luxury homeowners began to make desperate efforts in the last days of March to sell their properties.

The Times reports that Emanuel saved approximately $800,000. He would have had to pay under ULA.

Breitbart reported recently that the tax had been a failure so far. It “had brought luxury home sales to a standstill while raising very little money for affordable housing.”