{"id":387398,"date":"2026-07-06T00:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/387398\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T00:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:03:10","slug":"even-gavin-newsom-knows-his-wealth-tax-flip-flop-wont-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/387398\/","title":{"rendered":"Even Gavin Newsom knows his wealth-tax flip-flop won’t work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Gavin Newsom seems to understand the folly of a wealth tax in California<\/a>, yet he\u2019s suddenly pushing one for the whole nation.<\/p>\n

Sorry, Gav \u2014 you had it right the first time: It\u2019s bad for your state and for the country. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Newsom has opposed a California ballot measure that would slap a one-time 5% tax<\/a> on residents whose net worth exceeds $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Not even an offer from SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West<\/a>, which proposed the measure, to reduce the tax rate from 5% to 2% convinced him the plan would work.<\/p>\n

Clearly, he knows such a tax would drive billionaires out of the state<\/a>, undermining California\u2019s economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed, the mere proposal, which got over 900,000 signatures, already has the uber-rich heading for the exits.<\/p>\n

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Google co-founder Sergey Brin<\/a> moved 15 of his LLCs out of state.\u00a0DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang called the levy \u201cstupid\u201d and said it would be irresponsible for him to stay if it passed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ex-Uber boss Travis Kalanick skedaddled to Austin, Texas, in December to avoid the tax.<\/p>\n

Yet now that he\u2019s eyeing a run for president in 2028, Newsom wants folks to believe a national wealth tax won\u2019t push folks abroad. Big mistake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Palantir Chairman Peter Thiel recently bought real estate in Argentina<\/a>, seeking refuge in part just from Cali\u2019s billionaire tax \u2014 even after he spent $3 million to oppose it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other billionaires are similarly eyeing Latin America<\/a> for its lower taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Felipe Silva, a Uruguay\u2013based adviser with real-estate firm Engel & V\u00f6lkers, says Uruguay is attracting the wealthy, particularly from California and New York, thanks to its\u00a0its business climate and safety.<\/p>\n

Note, too, that wealth taxes haven\u2019t done well for nations that tried them.<\/p>\n

Of the 12 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries that imposed them in the 1990s, eight ultimately rescinded them \u2014 as government revenues fell short, their economies suffered and administrative tasks proved daunting.<\/p>\n

In 1997, Germany declared its wealth tax unconstitutional.\u00a0In 2021, the Netherlands ruled it violated European property-rights law.<\/p>\n

Such a tax may well be unconstitutional in America, too.<\/p>\n

As for claims about fairness: The top-earning 1% of Americans are already overtaxed, accounting for 40% of federal income taxes, while earning just 22% of income.<\/p>\n

By comparison, the bottom half account for just 3%.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s sudden shift may play well with Democrats\u2019 tax-the-rich crowd, but it won\u2019t help with anyone who understands economics \u2014 and actual fairness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Gavin Newsom seems to understand the folly of a wealth tax in California, yet he\u2019s suddenly pushing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,383,12161,989,457,9304,975,46025,1694,57440],"class_list":["post-387398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-economy","tag-editorial","tag-elections","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-latin-america","tag-opinion","tag-rich","tag-taxes","tag-uruguay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387398","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=387398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}