A proposed November 2026 California ballot initiative called “Save California Health Care and Public Education” is also the billionaires tax. The initiative is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW West). It is a labor union for healthcare workers in California based in Oakland, CA. This possible voter approved state of California billionaire wealth confiscation is an Austrian economic nightmare with poor outcomes.
In “California’s Billionaire Tax Proposal Would Allow Sweeping, One-Time Taxation Based on Net Worth” it is reported, “The act is designed to raise funds to offset cuts to Medi-Cal and other federal programs. Because it is structured as a one-time wealth tax — not an income tax — it raises novel constitutional and valuation questions.” Medi-Cal is the California version of the federal Medicaid program that offers no-cost and low-cost health coverage to eligible people who live in California.
The California Legislative Analyst’s Office web page states,
Billionaires living in California on January 1, 2026 would have to pay a one-time state tax equal to 5 percent of their net worth. The tax would be due in 2027. Taxpayers would have the option to spread the payments over five years, but would have to pay more to do so. Real estate, pensions, and retirement accounts would be excluded from the tax.
Revenues from the wealth tax would be set aside in a special account. . . . 90 percent of the money would have to be spent on health care services for the public. The rest would have to be spent on administration of the wealth tax, education, and food assistance.
This is wealth redistribution plain and simple.
Each California ballot initiative requires petition signatures from a set percent of registered voters for the initiative to appear on the ballot. If passed by a simple voter majority then it’s a combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute.
Ballotpedia News reports,
Jack Guidi from Americans for Tax Reform, who also opposes the initiative, said, “The tax is retroactive and would apply to all eligible residents beginning January 1st, 2026. However, the earliest this tax could go into effect would be November 2026. This means California could end up losing tax revenue even if the ballot initiative doesn’t pass, as it incentivizes wealthy residents to escape before the tax passes.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom is publicly against the proposed billionaire tax.
Some billionaires have left California before January 1, 2026. A Los Angeles Times article states January 12, 2026,
. . .Google’s co-founder Larry Page, 52, had moved many of his business interests out of California,. . . Google co-founder Sergey Brin, 52, was already part of the exodus. . . . David Sacks, President Trump’s AI tsar who is a billionaire venture capitalist, had moved to Austin, Texas, . . . Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, also loosened his ties with California. . .
According to California Wealth Tax Proposals,
California loses more wealthy individuals to outmigration than any other state already, a fact which subjects California budget analysts to a giant sucking sound of their own as every year taxable income heads to greener pastures.
California would have to build an enforcement apparatus to crack down on one-time tax avoidance when it is not permanent. The institutional knowledge developed on administering this one-time tax results in staff becoming useless.
One future ballot initiative consequence is valuing company shares not publicly traded. A company founder can hold private shares with direct control share voting rights. Meta’s founder, “. . . Mark Zuckerberg owns about 13.6 percent of Meta but has 61.0 percent voting control.” Founders private share ownership usually have transfer restrictions keeping these shares from public sale and confer share voting control for the publicly-traded company. Meta has common stock shares publicly traded.
One initiative valuation method is Zuckerberg’s private shares with 61.0 percent voting control view him owning 61.0 percent of Meta. His wealth valuation would be based on Meta’s stock value on a specific date multiplied by 61.0 percent to determine his total wealth for application of the California billionaire tax.
The draft initiative language requires each billionaire to submit to the state of California an inventory appraised and certified of the value of personally-owned artwork, intellectual property and other unrealized capital gain assets. The state of California employees can dispute each billionaire’s certified appraisal if it’s too high or low. They can provide their own certified appraised value of the billionaire’s disputed property value to be used in figuring their total property value to assess the billionaire tax.
If this ballot initiative passes in November 2026, then California’s billionaire exodus will continue, followed by the multimillionaires. A famous quote from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
