[[link removed]]

BILLIONAIRE WEALTH TAX HEADED TO THE CALIFORNIA BALLOT  
[[link removed]]


 

David Dayen
June 26, 2026
The American Prospect
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Gov. Gavin Newsom, who opposes the tax, tried to intimidate
proponents into pulling the measure. It didn’t work. _

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has unsuccessfully sided with
billionaires in the debate over a ballot measure that would create a
one-time wealth tax in his state., Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo

 

Sponsors of a ballot measure in California that would place a one-time
5 percent tax on the wealth of the state’s billionaires, raising
approximately $100 billion to offset devastating federal cuts to
health care for the next five years, announced on Thursday that they
would go forward to the statewide ballot this November.

The announcement came despite fierce opposition from, well,
billionaires, as well as Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has sided with the 250
richest people in California and will now have to decide if becoming
the public face of opposition to a tax on billionaires is something he
wants to do before running for president in 2028.

Voters will also see two rival measures that would nullify the
billionaire tax; they were funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and
qualified for the ballot earlier this week. Under the rules guiding
direct democracy in the state, in the event of competing initiatives,
the successful proposition with the most votes would become state law.

Thursday was the last day that initiatives could be withdrawn in
California, under a system that allows sponsors to negotiate with the
legislature to either place substitute language on the ballot or
arrive at a legislative solution. Neither side opted to do so.

“We are confident we will win,” said Debru Carthan, vice president
of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers
West (SEIU-UHW), which represents 120,000 health care workers in the
state and proposed the ballot measure.

_IF SUCCESSFUL, THE MEASURE WOULD CREATE THE FIRST WEALTH TAX IN THE
NATION, ALBEIT A TEMPORARY ONE._

The union has said that a wealth tax was the only solution anyone has
proposed to avoid ER and hospital closures, a loss of coverage for 3.2
million residents, higher premiums, deductibles and co-pays for
another 20 million, and 150,000 lost health care professional jobs.
Medi-Cal, the state version of Medicaid, would see the lion’s share
of the cuts.

“Gov. Newsom has no plan,” said Carthan at the press event. “He
has no plan to stop emergency rooms from closing. He has no plan for
your health care costs. He has no plan to make sure that your family
doesn’t have to drive further and wait longer to get medical
care.”

Opponents argue that the wealth tax would cause capital flight from
the state, though it is based on residents as of January 1 of this
year, and therefore any billionaires who left after the tax passed
would still have to pay. California’s tax code is distorted and
heavily dependent on receipts from wealthy individuals, so any capital
flight could reduce regular revenues, opponents have said.

If successful, the measure would create the first wealth tax in the
nation, albeit a temporary one. The surge of capital income and
inequality over the past few decades has hived off trillions of
dollars from taxation, as the wealthy use elaborate accounting
strategies to keep their wealth out of reach.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who appeared on the press call, made the point
that stock markets are on target to increase by as much as 15 percent
this year. Therefore, a 5 percent tax would still leave billionaires
with a healthy annual gain. “This is a 90-10 issue among voters,”
Khanna said, questioning why any Democrat would oppose it, a
not-so-subtle reference to Newsom, a potential foe in a presidential
nomination race.

SEIU-UHW spent $31 million on the signature-gathering effort for the
billionaire tax and would likely need many times that to keep pace
with the limitless pockets of the opposition. The union promised that
50,000 volunteers would work on the Yes campaign this fall, an
enormous sum until you realize that would only represent 1 out of
every 463 registered voters
[[link removed]]
in the state. Still, if that materializes it would be one of the
largest grassroots efforts in state history, if not the largest.

Beyond stating personal opposition, Newsom had been working over the
last couple of months to peel off other unions and health care groups
[[link removed]]
like Planned Parenthood and the California Medical Association, in an
attempt to isolate SEIU-UHW and force them to give up on the
billionaire tax.

Late last week, sponsors publicly presented
[[link removed]]
Gov. Newsom with a compromise measure that would have lowered the tax
on wealth to 2 percent, raising enough to offset the federal cuts from
President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill for only two years, a bridge to
coming up with a long-term solution. But Newsom quickly rejected the
compromise [[link removed]].
“Changing the tax rate doesn’t change this measure’s fundamental
flaws that harm working Californians.”

Sources told the _Prospect_ that the union presented the compromise to
Newsom shortly before making it public, but the response was swift.
Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW, told reporters that there were
never more than a couple of “cursory” negotiations between ballot
sponsors and Gov. Newsom’s office. “What the governor made clear
from the beginning is that he would not entertain any proposal or
compromise that taxed billionaires,” Regan said.

Regan added that organizations that decided to fall in behind Newsom
were not listening to their rank and file. “I think those
organizations ought to check in with their own members,” he said in
response to a question from the _Prospect_. “It’s a classic
example of a handful of political actors acting against what their
constituents want.”

Sponsors have claimed that the measure has double-digit leads in
polling. But opponents are using a time-honored tactic in California:
competing ballot measures that sow confusion and lead voters to throw
up their hands and vote against everything.

The first poison-pill measure would prohibit any new state taxes on
personal property, while the second, which is being sold as a
transparency measure, would void any new taxes that did not adhere to
a state spending rule called the Gann Limit; the billionaire tax would
distribute extra funds above that limit to plug health care gaps. Brin
has already given over $82 million to the group that put together the
competing initiatives.

Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff at SEIU-UHW, called the two poison
pills “just bad policy … It’s sad to see the governor stand in
line with billionaires like Sergey Brin, playing with such horrible
policies designed to stop the Billionaire Tax.”

While many in the political establishment may have wanted the
expensive fight to go away, it will now likely get the majority of the
screen time in the state this fall, over the foregone conclusion of a
governor’s race and even a handful of high-profile congressional
battles. It also puts Newsom and other establishment Democrats in an
uncomfortable position, having to align with billionaires who already
received massive tax cuts from the Trump administration last year, at
a time when the public is struggling to pay bills and strongly
negative on oligarchical wealth.

SEIU-UHW says the cost of inaction is far too great, leading to a
collapse of the state’s health system. Said Regan: “They always
talk about California being the fourth-largest economy in the world.
Well, the fourth-largest economy in the world should be able to
maintain health coverage for 3.5 million people.”

_DAVID DAYEN is the executive editor of THE AMERICAN PROSPECT. He is
the author of Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power and
Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s
Great Foreclosure Fraud. He co-hosts the podcast Organized Money with
Matt Stoller. He can be reached on Signal at ddayen.90._

_BEFORE YOU GO._

_I hope that you found this article interesting and thought-provoking.
The reason we’re able to publish stories like this — free of
programmatic ads and never behind a paywall — is because readers
like you step up to support our work. _

_The Prospect doesn't answer to advertisers or billionaire owners. We
answer to you and to our commitment to pursuing the truth, wherever
that leads us. _

_Independent, reader-supported journalism is critical at a time when
the free press is under assault. _

_If you believe this kind of reporting should exist and remain free to
read, we hope you'll consider chipping in. Every contribution, however
modest, makes a real difference._

_DONATE NOW_
[[link removed]]

_DAVID DAYEN__Executive Editor_

 

* wealth tax
[[link removed]]
* California
[[link removed]]
* elections
[[link removed]]
* Billionaires
[[link removed]]
* Google
[[link removed]]
* Sergey Brin
[[link removed]]
* Healthcare
[[link removed]]
* Gov. Gavin Newsom
[[link removed]]
* SEIU-UHW
[[link removed]]
* ballot measures
[[link removed]]
* unions
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Bluesky [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]