Not only has Gov. Gavin Newsom vocally opposed the proposed California billionaire tax, but he also wants to prevent the state from ever passing a wealth tax in the future.
On Friday he endorsed Proposition 42, a ballot measure that would cancel out Proposition 40, the proposed billionaire tax. Prop. 42 would prohibit retroactive taxes like the one-time 5% tax on assets that would apply to any billionaire who lived in California on Jan. 1, 2026 if Prop. 40 passes.
But Prop. 42, funded and placed on the ballot by billionaire and Google co-founder Sergey Brin to defeat the billionaire tax, also would go further, by banning any new taxes on personal property.
That includes pensions and 401K accounts before retirees start drawing retirement income from them. It also includes other investments, financial assets, business holdings, art collections and all other forms of personal wealth that would be affected by the billionaire tax or any future wealth tax.
Newsom’s decision to support Prop. 42 runs counter to his own Democratic Party and some labor unions. It also aligns him with some of the wealthy tech donors with whom he’s maintained longstanding relationships dating back to his days as mayor of San Francisco.
It’s been said here before and I’m trying not to be defeatist but 40 is probably not going to pass. And it’s basically a tacit admission that so many people still believe trickle down economics works…
They’re blanketing us with propaganda hard here. Tons of ads about how there’s a loophole to make it so that everyone can be taxed*, ads about how unions and teachers are against it, ads from people who ‘changed their mind’ about it, etc. I think I’ve got some that came in the mail that I let my cat have (he loves to shred paper).
* true in a very tortured reading of the text, but trying to implement it as anything other than a wealth tax on billionaires is almost certain to fail in court
Uh, what? 40? Is that prez? Fuck him, and fuck Newsom.
Prop 40 is Californias one time billionaire retroactive tax. The two biggest arguments against it are “I earned all of that money on my own” and “we should tax them more than once” which I also agree with, but isn’t on the ballot. The one time tax could be on the ballot every year too, nothing is preventing that.
Thanks for informing them, I’m not sure how they managed to miss everything about the post I commented on 🤷