{"id":347417,"date":"2026-06-05T01:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T01:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/347417\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T01:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T01:57:08","slug":"union-knows-whod-really-pay-for-california-wealth-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/347417\/","title":{"rendered":"Union knows who’d really pay for California wealth tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are cracks in the foundation of labor support for the California \u201cbillionaire tax\u201d<\/a> headed for the Nov. 3 ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a nod to reality, the president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council says <\/a>billionaires produce sports arenas and other large projects that put tradesmen to work.<\/p>\n

\u201c[W]hat we believe would happen is these individuals would leave California and would take these investments to other states \u2014 losing the jobs for our members,\u201d Chris Hannon said.<\/p>\n

Bingo.<\/p>\n

There are cracks in the foundation of labor support for the California \u201cbillionaire tax\u201d headed for the Nov. 3 ballot.\u00a0 AP<\/p>\n

\u201c[W]hat we believe would happen is these individuals would leave California and would take these investments to other states \u2014 losing the jobs for our members,\u201d Chris Hannon said. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

And the exodus\/job loss dynamic<\/a> would not only hit construction; it would batter industries statewide, from technology and entertainment to philanthropy, retail and more.<\/p>\n

The damage from the tax \u2013\u2013 which would slap a onetime 5% levy on any state resident whose net worth exceeds $1 billion, retroactive to Jan. 1 \u2013\u2013 is already here.<\/p>\n

Billionaires with combined fortunes exceeding $500 billion have fled the state, thanks to the wealth-tax scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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And they\u2019ve taken about 30% of the state\u2019s aggregate billionaire wealth with them, per research from Stanford University\u2019s Hoover Institution.<\/p>\n

That hardly bodes well for a state that\u2019s disproportionately reliant on rich taxpayers and faces multibillion-dollar budget shortfalls as it is.<\/p>\n

Wealth flight, job losses and deeper state deficits are just the start, and for what?<\/p>\n

That hardly bodes well for a state that\u2019s disproportionately reliant on rich taxpayers and faces multibillion-dollar budget shortfalls as it is. AP<\/p>\n

For greed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The wealth tax is a self-serving cash grab by the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, one of the many unions that all but run Sacramento.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SEIU-UHW\u2019s mulish president, Dave Regan, appears to care nothing for the larger fallout in California, so long as he can pad his union\u2019s pockets at public expense.<\/p>\n

(Regan collected total compensation of about $400,000 in 2023, per ProPublica\u2019s Nonprofit Explorer, a nonpartisan database based on public IRS filings.)<\/p>\n

The union says that proceeds from the billionaire tax would offset lower federal spending on state-federal health programs such as Medi-Cal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But really, the \u201ccuts\u201d enacted by Congress and the president reflect common-sense policy, including work requirements, modest premiums for access to medical care, and eligibility checks for those enrolled in a program meant to serve the poor.<\/p>\n

The union says that proceeds from the billionaire tax would offset lower federal spending on state-federal health programs such as Medi-Cal.\u00a0 AP<\/p>\n

No matter; that still means less money might flow to the voracious union that represents 120,000 health care workers in California.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, if the wealth-tax ploy works, what happens to the rest of us?<\/p>\n

We pay.<\/p>\n

Once the initial onetime levy on billionaires is collected and spent on raises and perks for union members, what then? Pressure on other taxpayers to prevent dire \u201ccuts,\u201d of course.<\/p>\n

After the precedent of taxing personal net worth is set, what\u2019s to stop the state from expanding that tax to millionaires, and, over time, on down the chain to the middle class?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also this: Once billions in income tax receipts are gone, thanks to the wealth tax, who will be left to cover holes and keep the state\u2019s general fund afloat? Oh, that\u2019s right, the rest of us.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s good to see cracks in labor\u2019s support for this farce.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s imperative that voters understand the stakes, and reject the wealth tax in November.<\/p>\n

Because make no mistake: If the billionaire tax passes, the entire state will pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are cracks in the foundation of labor support for the California \u201cbillionaire tax\u201d headed for the Nov.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9329,7,9,8,989,975,1694,5476],"class_list":["post-347417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-billionaires","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-elections","tag-opinion","tag-taxes","tag-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347417","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=347417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}