{"id":477489,"date":"2026-09-27T15:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T15:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477489\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T15:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T15:46:11","slug":"the-billionaire-tax-could-be-defeated-by-two-other-tax-measures-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477489\/","title":{"rendered":"The billionaire tax could be defeated by two other tax measures. Here\u2019s how"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"People<\/a>People visit the Billionaire Tax Now booth at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco on Feb. 21, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Chiu\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

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

California voters will soon decide whether to tax billionaires \u2014 but even if a majority says yes, the measure could still lose to either of two billionaire-funded measures designed to cancel it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The billionaire-backed group Building a Better California designed two countermeasures to undermine the wealth tax and create multiple ways to defeat it.<\/p>\n

Recent polling shows slim majorities of likely voters support not just the wealth tax, Proposition 40<\/a>, but also Propositions 41 and 42, the measures aimed at killing it, according to the Public Policy Institute of California<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that people at this point realize they\u2019re direct countermeasures because there hasn\u2019t been much said about 41 and 42,\u201d said Mark Baldassare, polling director for PPIC.<\/p>\n

Only one outcome can prevail. If Prop. 40 captures more votes than both 41 and 42, the wealth tax takes effect, voiding the countermeasures. If either 41 or 42 outpolls Prop. 40, the billionaire tax does not take effect.<\/p>\n

What each measure does<\/p>\n

Prop. 40 would levy a one-time 5% tax on California residents whose net worth exceeds $1 billion. The tax would apply based on residency as of Jan. 1, 2026 \u2014 a date that had passed when the measure qualified for the ballot \u2014 meaning billionaires who left the state afterward would still owe it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the money generated would fund healthcare, while a smaller portion would go to education. Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the primary proponent and financial backer of the measure, says the tax would raise about $100 billion and is needed to backfill federal healthcare cuts passed last year. Conservatives argue California\u2019s Medi-Cal program has grown too expensive, and new federal policies will help the state cut back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prop. 41\u2019s real target is Prop. 40: It would require new tax proposals passed after the start of this year to follow the state\u2019s annual spending limit \u2014 a cap passed by voters in 1979<\/a> during a period of strong anti-tax sentiment that recent voter-approved special taxes have exempted themselves from. The billionaire tax would automatically violate this provision because it isn\u2019t written to comply with the state spending limit.<\/p>\n

Prop 41 would also require the nonpartisan state auditor to review new tax proposals before they reach voters and identify potential spending cuts in the programs they\u2019d fund. If voters approve a tax, some of the revenue generated would pay for the audit; if a proposal fails, the state would be on the hook for the additional cost.<\/p>\n

Prop. 42 would bar new taxes on personal property such as businesses, investments, retirement accounts, trusts and art collections \u2014 the exact things that Prop. 40 targets. It would also prohibit retroactive taxes, which would block a key part of Prop. 40: taxing wealth accumulated before the measure takes effect. Either provision alone is enough to nullify Prop. 40, if the wealth tax wins fewer votes than 41 or 42.<\/p>\n

\u201cProp. 42 is a more direct anti-wealth tax proposal,\u201d said Megan Jones, a tax attorney with Holland and Knight. The Legislature has tried unsuccessfully in the past to pass multiple wealth taxes<\/a>, Jones said. If Prop. 42 passes, she said, it could limit lawmakers\u2019 ability to try again in the future.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s funding the fights<\/p>\n

Backers of the billionaire tax \u2014 primarily SEIU-UHW \u2014 have raised about $31 million to pass the measure, mostly from union coffers. The California Democratic Party<\/a> also supports the measure.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom, along with doctors\u2019 groups and clinics, opposes Prop. 40. Newsom argues the tax would not create a long-term solution to California\u2019s budget woes and will drive wealthy people and businesses the state relies on through income taxes out of the state, further reducing revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder, and other billionaires are bankrolling the opposition campaign, ploughing more than $56 million into the No on Prop. 40 committee through a political organization called Building a Better California. That same group is the primary financial backer for both Propositions 41<\/a> and 42<\/a>, raising $131 million to campaign for those measures. In total, the billionaire-backed group has gathered more than $187 million to try to defeat Prop. 40.<\/p>\n

Baldassare said the billionaire tax\u2019s backers will have a difficult time overcoming voter confusion about the three competing measures.<\/p>\n

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.<\/p>\n

CalMatters<\/a> is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People visit the Billionaire Tax Now booth at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[40292,173268,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-477489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-billionaire-tax","tag-prop-40","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477489","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=477489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}