Opponents of the measure—a group that includes Newsom, as well as a number of Silicon Valley tech giants, advocacy groups, and other lawmakers in the state—argue that it will hurt California’s economy by driving out its billionaire residents, who collectively hold over $2 trillion in wealth, almost 30% of that possessed by all the billionaires in the U.S.
“Enthusiasm for the billionaire tax is unlike anything we have seen before,” said Debru Carthan, the vice president of the union sponsoring the bill, SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, at a Thursday evening press conference. “The billionaire tax will be on the November ballot and we intend to win.”
The union garnered over 1.5 million signatures in support of putting the measure on the ballot, it reported, far surpassing the 874,641 required to qualify. If passed by voters in the fall, the measure would create the “2026 Billionaire Tax Reserve Fund,” with 90% of the revenue gathered from the tax allocated to healthcare and 10% to food assistance or education-related programs.
SEIU-United President Dave Regan, who pledged he was “all in” on the measure, said following Newsom’s rejection of that offer that governor “would not entertain any proposal or any compromise to tax billionaires,” and accused him of being in “lockstep” with the state’s billionaires.
SEIU-United, meanwhile, spent around $31 million in the campaign to get the measure on the ballot.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who representsSilicon Valley, said “it makes no sense to me why any Democratic elected official or traditional Democratic allies wouldn’t be supporting this.”
Top California lawmakers oppose the proposal
Newsom has been a vocal opponent of the proposed tax in his state. He has, though, expressed his support for such a measure on the federal level.
“You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do,” the governor wrote. “Wealth is movable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes. The fight belongs at the federal level, where this broken system was created in the first place.”
Newsom’s likely successor, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Xavier Becerra, has also expressed his opposition to the proposal.
The Republican nominee in the governor’s race, Steve Hilton, also publicly denounced the bill during his podcast, “The Steve Hilton Show,” in an episode titled: “Billionaire Tax DESTROYS California Overnight!”
“Everybody should be paying their fair share, but if people can up and flee, I’d rather see something done at the national level,” said Lofgren.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie also said he thinks the wealth tax is “the wrong measure” while speaking to an audience in January, expressing a similar view to Newsom’s.
“Everybody should be paying their fair share,” Lurie said. “But if people can up and flee, I’d rather see something done at the national level.”
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