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December 8, 2025 (916) 553-4093

Business Roundtable Votes to Oppose Billionaire Tax Increase as Major Threat to California Budget and Economic Growth

SACRAMENTO—The California Business Roundtable today announced that it has taken a position to formally oppose the “Billionaire Tax” ballot measure, which is proposed for the November 2026 ballot.

“Governor Newsom is right. This wealth tax would have a devasting impact on our economy, state budget, and the cost of living for all Californians. The measure doesn’t do anything to reduce the state’s $35 billion plus budget deficit and does nothing to address the decade of overspending that led to the structural deficit. In fact, because the state relies so heavily on high-income-earner tax revenue, this measure could lead to reduced budget revenue in the long term as highly mobile wealthy individuals leave the state to avoid this new tax,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable.

California’s budget and fiscal health are nearly entirely reliant on high income earners. In 2022, 38.7 percent of all state tax revenue came from the top 1 percent of income earners. In fact, in Tax Year 2021, only 8,519 of the wealthiest taxpayers paid 24 percent of all Personal Income Tax revenue.

High-wealth individuals are already leaving the state, driven in part by Proposition 55, which extended a “temporary” Personal Income Tax increase on Californians making more than $1 million. Prop. 55’s taxpayer exodus is costing the state billions of dollars in new tax revenue at a time when the state needs every dollar it can get. This new wealth tax will only make it worse.

Wealth taxes aren’t new; 13 European countries have tried similar taxes and all but three have repealed them due to concerns over outmigration, lack of investment, and negative economic impacts.

“California can’t afford this tax. The state budget can’t afford to lose revenue from high-wealth individuals; our economy can’t afford increased budget instability, and families can’t afford the new and higher taxes they would have to pay to backfill the tax revenue lost by this measure. We look forward to working with a broad and bipartisan coalition fighting this ballot measure,” Lapsley concluded.

California Business Roundtable

1121 L Street, Suite 510 Sacramento, CA 95814

916.553.4093

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