The state’s Democratic leaders are also divided on Proposition 40, with Gov. Gavin Newsom and gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra opposing the measure.
Aug 27, 2026
Updated 11:49 am PT
A supporter with the Billionaire Tax Now coalition holds a placard during a media briefing in Los Angeles on April 27, 2026. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
The San Francisco Democratic Party has voted to oppose a proposed statewide billionaire tax, marking a rare divergence from the California Democratic Party, which endorsed the November ballot measure.
Proposition 40 has emerged as a lightning rod among Democrats, with the state party narrowly voting to endorse it while prominent moderate Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have come out against it.
Wednesday’s vote came shortly after the majority-moderate San Francisco Democratic Party changed its bylaws earlier this summer to allow the local party to go against the state Democratic Party’s endorsements.
Supporters have said Proposition 40 would provide a much-needed injection of cash to California’s healthcare system at a time when federal cuts to Medicare have impacted residents across the state and city of San Francisco.
Signs reading “A Billionaire Tax Now” rest on chairs at a Billionaire Tax Now rally where Sen. Bernie Sanders is set to speak in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2026. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
But opponents say it’s a misguided effort to tax the wealthy and could result in billionaires fleeing to other states.
“Passing a billionaire tax in California is not a long-term viable solution to providing affordable healthcare,” member Lanier Coles said. “We need federal tax reform to address the growing inequities and concentration of wealth.”
One member in the audience fired back: “That’s why you lost to Trump twice.”
The 17-4 vote fell along moderate-progressive lines. The measure would create a one-time 5% tax on Californians with a net worth that exceeds $1 billion who lived in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026. The tax could generate about $100 billion and would be paid by roughly 200 billionaires, according to the campaign.
“Working families who are barely holding on here in San Francisco and across the state are paying their taxes,” San Francisco Democratic Party member Peter Gallotta said. “Billionaires making ungodly sums of money with more than they can spend in their lifetimes can afford to contribute more.”
Progressive members slammed their moderate colleagues for playing defense for billionaires, including powerful tech donors who have helped elect members of the local Democratic Party.
Former San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar, representing District 4, at a rally supporting the creation of a statewide union of Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig workers on Oct. 12, 2022. (Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)
A no vote on Proposition 40 “would reinforce the public perception that our local Democratic Party is more responsive to the billionaire interest who spent heavily to elect the current majority than healthcare workers and working families,” former Supervisor Gordon Mar said. “The federal healthcare cuts facing California are not minor … Prop. 40 is the only proposal before voters and on the table more generally that approaches the scale of this crisis.”
San Francisco Democratic Party members Emma Hare and Eric Kingsbury put forward a resolution calling for a national wealth tax, which Newsom has also proposed.
“American government increasingly answers to an oligarchy of a few hundred households rather than to the more than three hundred million Americans it exists to serve,” reads the resolution, co-sponsored by Supervisor Matt Dorsey and party member Joe Sangirardi.
“If wealthy people know how to do anything really well, it’s to get through loopholes, and I think this measure has a lot of loopholes,” Hare said. “I think we can do better.”