Campaigners behind the one-time 5% billionaires wealth tax in California are calling out what they describe as trickery and deception by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who on Friday released a proposal for a national billionaire’s income tax even as he actively opposes the effort to tax the wealth of billionaires in the state that he and his party currently control.
“Newsom does not want to tax billionaires,” said the Billionaire Tax Now campaign in a statement, “but he wants you to think he does.”
As Common Dreams reported Friday, critics of Newsom warn that the governor thinks “he can fool everyone” with his proposal for a national tax on the income of billionaires while simultaneously opposing a wealth tax headed for a referendum vote in November designed to fill a massive healthcare funding gap in the state created by the budget bill passed by Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump last year.
They are not the same thing. One is a wealth tax. One is an income tax. Rich people don’t pay income taxes.
It just makes more sense to establish a billionaire Tax at national Level.
Moving across States ie one thing, moving across national borders another.
Well two things, 1) It doesn’t matter if they move now. The tax is a one time tax on anyone who was a billionaire living in California in 2025. Moving now does not remove your liability. They will still impose the tax on you even if you’re in, say, Texas now. 2) It is far far far more simple and likely to pass such a tax in the California legislature than in the US Senate and House right now. It would certainly be better to do at a federal level, but they won’t. So then doing it at the state level where you can is better than nothing.
Fair Points👍
The tax proposed in California is a one-time thing. Any billionaires that end up paying it will almost certainly see their wealth increase by what they paid and then some by the time Newsom is in a position to implement a national tax (and he probably won’t do it). Newsom’s tax is not a reason not to go ahead with California’s tax.
I don’t trust that guy but he’s light years better than Blob the Builder.
Newsom is going to be the giant bowl of oatmeal that will be the DNC candidate for president, Soooo we can expect no changes, and this timeline will continue to blow chunks.
Fuck the centrist DNC, they will kill us all.
If it was a choice between Newsom and Vance I’d vote for Newsom in a heartbeat.
As would I, and thus nothing will change. Life will not improve for the 99%. Which is what the centerist Dems want.
We need different and better leaders.
Centrist Dems are just goons to their super PACs. Just as corrupt and teaming with fascism as Republicans
This dude is in the position to lead by example. The governor of the state that happens to be the 4th largest economy in the world.
Tax those parasites!
A national tax ensures billionaires have more difficulty dodging it. A tax in a single state just makes people move to a different state. Tactically, it makes more sense.
They don’t care, they stay anyway. They threaten to leave, but all of the stuff they like is where they’re living now.
That includes the labor and infrastructure that really created their wealth.
Exactly.
They aren’t paying enough, they can leave. They won’t.
That’s like saying your parasites will move to a different body if they can’t suck your blood. Ummmm, okay. Economies are not propped up by billionaires, they succeed in spite of them.
A state bill in California has a much higher chance of passing and much sooner, while a federal bill can still be passed afterward. And those billionaires threatening to move? Some of them might, but many of them won’t.
His proposal isn’t actually a wealth tax though, it’s basically just an income tax only applied to people with billions of dollars in wealth, which means nothing since people at that level of wealth don’t make incomes that can be taxed meaningfully.
It doesn’t matter. It’s a start. We can’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
No, it’s not a start, it’s what we’re currently doing. It’s just a rebranding of the currently non-functional system.
It’s not good, it’s actually deceitful to suggest this nonsense in place of an already compromise solution. An income tax being branded as a wealth tax is just nonsense distraction from people who want the appearance of being progressive without actually supporting anything that might bother their wealthy donors.
