In Kalifornien herrscht Panik wegen der vorgeschlagenen Milliardärssteuer – Technologiemogule und gemäßigte Demokraten mobilisieren ihr Vermögen und ihre Netzwerke, um den Vorschlag zu blockieren

Excerpts from article by Arnaud Leparmentier:

*A proposed billionaire tax has alarmed California’s tech magnates and moderate Democrats, beginning with outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom. This legislative initiative, spearheaded by the health workers‘ union SEIU-UHW, would impose a 5% tax on the assets of all billionaires who were California residents as of January 1, 2026.*

*Thanks to a $31 million campaign, the petition has gathered 980,438 valid signatures – more than the 875,000 required – the California Secretary of State’s office announced on Wednesday, June 17. As a result, the proposal could go before voters during the midterm elections on November 3.*

*[…] This one-time tax, which its backers say would raise $100 billion, would allocate 90% of the funds to the healthcare system, with the remainder going to education and food assistance. It is meant to offset federal cuts made under Donald Trump. In response to the momentum, Governor Newsom, who is expected to seek the Democratic nomination for the 2028 presidential election, has tried to persuade the proposal’s backers to withdraw it.*

 

*[…] Major maneuvering is taking place behind the scenes. Unsurprisingly, billionaires have mobilized heavily, funding lobbying efforts. Google co-founder Sergey Brin donated $82 million to a political committee called „Building a Better California,“ which supports various initiatives to counter the proposal. This committee has raised more than $118 million.*

*Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, contributed $3 million to the California Business Roundtable, an organization opposing the tax, while Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, also made a $1 million donation.*

*[…] One argument made by those opposing the tax is the real or perceived exodus of billionaires to Florida or Texas, which do not levy a state income tax on top of the federal tax. Billionaires such as Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX), Larry Ellison (Oracle) and Marc Benioff (Salesforce) left the state several years ago.*

*Individual tax residence is not public information, so it is not possible to know whether Larry Page (Google), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) or Thiel – who have increased their presence in Delaware, Florida or even Argentina – were still California residents as of January 1.*

We have record wealth inequality and record number of billionaires. There can be real differences between wings of the Democratic party in many issues.

But taxing billionaires is not one of them: if you are against this, you are not a real Democrat IMO.

Let the billionaires decide if they want to pay or if they want pitchforks

Fair wages, better working conditions, better job benefits, better raises, paying their fair share of taxes, weekends off, a 40 hour work week.

The rich have fought all of these.

No. Some Dems want a federal billionaires tax not just state by state. This headline is so silly.

there should be no billionaires in this country. if such wealth really exists, why is the quality of life in America so low for so many? it’s the fucking monarchy all over again. tax it all away and prioritize involving as many people possible in our economy. everyone wins, except for a thousand people who will remain ridiculously rich anyway.

„Panic sweeps across California over proposed billionaire tax“

Are there really THAT many billionaires in California? This headline sounds a little hyperbolic.

Most billionaires are welfare queens and a burden on taxpayers, don’t believe their propaganda.

well, politicians should definitely take their money. Then turn around and vote for the billionaire tax anyway!

take the money and run, have the peoples back

The greatest defense in favor of it is their panic.

Fuck the Plutocrats

Let’s look at this another way. If the tax code were actually *fair* and taxed people fairly on all of their income equally, this wouldn’t be an issue to anyone.

Billionaires are just whining because suddenly this actually gets closer to fairness. What a sad, sorry bunch of people.

Hope y’all take note of the corporate shill democrats fighting for the Epstein class

A one time tax on billionaires and they are panicking. If anyone needed any proof that rich don’t give a damn about the rest of us, this would be it

Tax the ultra rich out of existence.

That people with more money than they could possibly ever spend are freaking out like this over paying a tiny bit more tax to help everyone else tells you all you need to know about billionaires.

Society has zero need for billionaires.

Americans desperately need to learn what the word “moderate” actually means

Any democrats who are fighting to block this are supporting Trump and his lap dogs.

I’m pro a wealth tax. The proposed wealth tax will be bad for California. It will disincentivize enterprenership. We should be taxing the loans the billionaires take out against their unrealized gains. Not their share ownership. This bill is not well designed. Stop reading the headlines, do your research. Understand the implications. This is like California’s brexit.

This is a completely misguided shit show. There is no other class more mobile than the billionaire class. Why the hell would they keep residency here when they can move? Answer, they will move and California will not get their money.

What doesn’t move out of California? Real estate. Create an additional property tax on high end properties and make that tax raise the expected money.

Any home more than 10,000 square feet or similar gets nailed for however much this tax would generate. Special annual reassessments, and so forth.

The billionaires will simply leave to avoid the state tax, this is a complete waste of time and resources to make this proposal.

This sort of tax initiative would only be successful at the national level and preventing billionaires from spreading assets to family members and trusts or corporations would be difficult. The rich pay the best and the brightest relative crumbs to avoid their tax responsibilities.