California’s billionaire tax faces a precarious road from rich opposition
Summary
California voters will decide on November 3 whether to impose a one-time 5 percent tax on the assets of the state’s billionaires. Opponents have raised far more money than supporters and are running ads that, according to the proposal’s coauthor and a campaign volunteer, include misleading claims about who would be taxed.Key Facts
- The proposed tax would apply once to the assets of California billionaires.
- University of California, Berkeley economics professor Brian Galle helped write the proposal and said an anti-tax flyer included claims he had not written.
- Billionaires and business leaders, including Sergey Brin, Tony Xu, Patrick Collison, Chris Larsen, John Doerr, Michael Moritz and Vinod Khosla, have donated more than $300 million to oppose the tax.
- Supporters of the tax have raised $32 million, according to the article.
- Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has not donated to oppose the tax, but company filings revealed that he told Meta’s board he would buy a home outside California to avoid the tax.
- Meta’s board created a new class of shares that Zuckerberg could use to pay the tax, according to the article.
- The article says any change to the tax would require a two-thirds majority in the California Assembly and would need to stay true to its purpose.
- The state Democratic Party endorsed the proposal, but volunteer Ashley Craig said she had not received ground-level campaign support from the party.
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