Rather than risk his own state’s economy by backing a California billionaire tax, Gavin Newsom tried to placate the socialists on Friday by backing a dead-end “national billionaire tax” instead.
On Monday, Newsom told the New York Times that he was working relentlessly behind the scenes to make sure the measure was not on the ballot in November.
“This will be defeated. There’s no question in my mind,” he said. “I’ll do what I have to do to protect the state.”
By Friday, Newsom had failed to keep the measure off the ballot, leaving him to explain in a Substack post that a billionaire tax is a terrible idea for California, but a great idea for the country.
Credit: @GavinNewsom via X
“The fight to make the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes is not one we should be fighting state by state. You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do. Wealth is moveable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes.” He added, “The fight belongs at the federal level, where this broken system was created in the first place.”
A national billionaire tax would face steep political hurdles even under a Democratic president, making Newsom’s endorsement largely symbolic given the bipartisan opposition such a measure would likely encounter. Newsom’s symbolic proposal left neither supporters nor opponents of the billionaire tax satisfied.
Leftist influencer, Matt Bernstein, wrote, “He is kind of the politician of all time. Changes his view three times a week, transforms himself to please whoever he’s speaking to, [with] no real aspirations besides power for himself.”
Trump’s former AI Czar and California resident David Sacks said Newsom had yielded to the Democratic-Socialists. “Today was the day that Gavin Newsom was supposed to save the tech industry by cutting a deal to kill the Billionaire Tax Act. Instead he came out as Democratic-Socialists of America adjacent, and the Billionaire Tax Act will be on the ballot in November.” A billionaire himself, Sacks added, “See y’all in Texas!”
Analysis from Newsom’s Department of Finance found that a state billionaire tax for California could generate tens of billions of dollars for the state, but it could lead to hundreds of millions in continuing losses if billionaires flee the state. The California Billionaires Tax would be a one-time levy that would collect 5% of a billionaire’s net worth. The tax would be paid in installments over the next five years at a rate of 1% per year.
If the tax is passed in November, 90% of the newly-raised revenue would offset healthcare cuts that President Trump signed into law according to the labor group backing the tax, the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West. The majority of revenue going to healthcare was another reason Newsom cited for voting against it. “This measure dedicates almost all of the revenue it raises to a single category of state spending,” he said. “It ignores our public schools, as the California Teachers Association has rightly pointed out, by failing to provide sustainable funding that our communities, parents and children deserve.”
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