As Backers Turn In Signatures, California Wealth Tax Measure Threatens Voter Safeguards
My latest column for the California Post looks at what Sacramento is really asking voters to approve with the proposed wealth tax…
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It Is Not About Billionaires
The pitch is simple: tax billionaires, fix California’s problems, and assure voters it will not affect them. That framing is politically effective because most Californians are not billionaires and do not know any. It makes the proposal feel distant, targeted, and harmless. But that is not what voters are actually being asked to approve.
Buried beneath the headline promise is something far more consequential — a structural change in how California can tax wealth going forward. Once that structure exists, the debate changes fundamentally. It is no longer about whether the state can impose this kind of tax, but how broadly Sacramento chooses to apply it. That shift is where the real stakes are.
This is not about whether billionaires can afford to pay more. It is about whether voters are being asked to hand Sacramento a new tool — one that does not stay neatly confined to its original target. In California, tax policy rarely stops where it starts, and history shows that once the machinery is built, it tends to expand.
That is why this moment matters. The fine print is not incidental to the proposal; it is the entire story. What sounds narrow and limited at the outset has the potential to evolve into something far broader over time, especially in a state where the demand for new revenue never seems to shrink.
👉 Read the full column in the California Post HERE.
More reading…
SEIU Prepares To Bankroll A New California Billionaire Tax To Feed A Liberal Addiction to Spending
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California’s Billionaire Wealth-Taking Plan: Crossing The Line Between Taxation And Confiscation
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Video Commentary
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