{"id":148002,"date":"2026-01-24T17:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148002\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T17:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:06:08","slug":"would-california-voters-actually-support-a-wealth-tax-on-billionaires-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148002\/","title":{"rendered":"Would California Voters Actually Support a Wealth Tax on Billionaires?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This commentary was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

In a sense, California has been taxing wealth since it became a state 175 years ago.<\/p>\n

Well into the 20th century, the state relied on taxing land and buildings which, in that agrarian period, were major forms of personal wealth. The state eventually imposed other taxes and by the 1930s, property taxes exclusively financed local services.<\/p>\n

Today, despite the limit on property taxes imposed by 1978\u2019s Proposition 13, levies on nearly $9 trillion in taxable real estate<\/a>, generate about $98 billion in revenue each year. The money gets roughly split between school districts and local governments.<\/p>\n

Despite those massive numbers, real estate no longer dominates Californians\u2019 personal wealth, which now tops $30 trillion. About a third is residential real estate, with commercial real estate, investments, personal property and cash representing the rest.<\/p>\n

California Has About 200 Billionaires<\/p>\n

It\u2019s believed that California has about 200 billionaires who collectively have about $2 trillion in net assets, or approximately 7% of Californians\u2019 wealth \u2014 overwhelmingly business investments, particularly in technology.<\/p>\n

So, should taxing real estate be supplemented by tapping other assets of the state\u2019s billionaires? Voters may decide this year because a wealth tax initiative<\/a> is being circulated by a union representing health care workers. It would impose a one-time 5% tax, mostly on their investments, that would raise an estimated $100 billion.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s needed, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West contends, to shore up vital health care services threatened<\/a> by reductions in federal subventions and the state budget\u2019s own deficits.<\/p>\n

The proposal carries multiple philosophical, economic and political aspects.<\/p>\n

Taxing wealth can be dated back to ancient Egypt. Since California already taxes real estate, why should other forms of personal wealth be exempted?<\/p>\n

Moreover, California already taxes incomes on a sliding scale with the highest rates on those with the highest incomes, so shouldn\u2019t a wealth tax be imposed using the same rationale?<\/p>\n

Most of the 200 or so Californians who would be taxed would probably answer \u201cno\u201d to those questions. A few have already fled<\/a> for states such as Nevada, Texas and Florida that don\u2019t tax incomes.<\/p>\n

In theory, those who haven\u2019t already migrated would still be subject to the wealth tax because it would be backdated to Jan. 1, 2026. However, the tax would likely face legal challenges, and targeted taxpayers who haven\u2019t already moved likely would argue that retroactive levies are illegal.<\/p>\n

One State Tax Already Hits the Wealthy for $10 Billion Annually<\/p>\n

The sponsoring union could face opposition from unions representing other professions because they would see little or no benefit. Having it on the ballot could affect another measure<\/a>, sponsored by public employee unions, that would continue a surtax on high-income earners that was first adopted in 2012 and later extended to 2030. It raises about $10 billion a year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom is loudly opposed, contending that a wealth tax would drive wealthy people out of the state. The top 1% of wealthy Californians pay nearly half of the state\u2019s income taxes.<\/p>\n

Newsom last week called the measure \u201cbadly drafted,\u201d<\/a> arguing that its revenue wouldn\u2019t be spread among other groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not support our public educators,\u201d he said. \u201cDoes not support our teachers and counselors, our librarians. It doesn\u2019t support our first responders and firefighters. Doesn\u2019t support the general fund and parks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proposal Isn\u2019t Polling Well<\/p>\n

While Newsom has long opposed wealth tax proposals, his obvious presidential ambitions surely play a role in his promises to lead an opposition campaign. The passage of a wealth tax could be weaponized in a presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

Would California voters embrace a wealth tax on the ballot?<\/p>\n

A poll commissioned by opponents<\/a> and released Tuesday found that the measure obtained a bare plurality when a sample of voters was read its official wording, but declined when they heard a counterargument.<\/p>\n

So who knows?<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. In a sense, California has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-148002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}