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Sunday, December 28, 2025

California 'wealth tax' proposal has its billionaires preparing to flee

 


By Monica Showalter

California has a problem with productive citizens leaving the state, which explains its affection for illegal aliens to replace them. But the Trump administration is cutting off their capacity to pay for their 'free' health care through federal dollars, which is they've cooked up a new scheme to get the illegals the freebies they require -- another one-time 'billionaire's tax' now collecting signature at the proposition level.

According to Forbes, the eat-the-rich cure-all intends the following:

The “2026 Billionaire Tax Act” would tax California residents whose net worth exceeds $1 billion up to 5% of their assets, and those with at least $20 billion in assets as of Jan. 1, 2026, would face a one-time tax of $1 billion. If the proposal was approved, Page would face a tax of roughly $12.8 billion in addition to the $1 billion one-time tax, while Thiel and Palihapitiya would pay about $2.35 billion and $60 million, respectively. The bill was proposed by the healthcare union Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which said the bill could generate up to $100 billion from 200 billionaires in the state. About 90% of these tax revenues would be used for health care, while 10% would fund food assistance and education-related programs. This tax revenue would offset the loss of billions in federal and state funding for California’s healthcare system, the group said.

'Net worth' of course, is unrealized income. Own a company assessed at a billion dollars and even though your salary may only be $150,000, you pay the full tax bite on $1 billion as if you had that much in your checking account.

See how bad it would be here, from one of the actual billionaires thinking about fleeing:

Even the New York Times sounds a little alarmed:

According to the Times, billionaires are not even waiting around to see if the measure gets enough signatures to make it onto the ballot. 

The Times writes:

Billionaires including Peter Thiel, the tech venture capitalist, and Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents, according to five people familiar with their thinking.

 

Mr. Thiel, 58, who owns a home in the Hollywood Hills and operates a personal investment firm from Los Angeles, has explored opening an office for that firm, Thiel Capital, in another state and spending more time outside California, three of the people said.

Other billionaires who appear to be making moves to decrease their presence in California include Mr. Page, 52, a longtime resident of Palo Alto. He has discussed leaving the state by the end of the year, according to two people briefed on the talks. In mid-December, three limited liability companies associated with Mr. Page filed documents to incorporate in Florida, according to state records.

The moves are being driven by a potential California ballot measure from the health care union, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the people said. The proposal calls for California residents worth more than $1 billion to be taxed the equivalent of 5 percent of their assets.

As Elon Musk once put it, 'message received.'

That's a lot of flight, and a lot of taxes that won't be collected. States such as Texas and Florida will get the taxes from them, at fairer rates, with no singling out success. And time is running out, because the tax is retroactive for anyone with high net worth living in California up until Jan. 1, 2026, meaning, there's about three days left.

But Silicon Valley's Rep. Ro Khanna, who's supposed to be one of the smarter and more reasonable Democrats out there, is all in for the Big Labor-led steal-a-thon:

Maybe they can ask Norway what happened when they instituted an itty bitty 'wealth tax':

California, of course, would like 5%, not 1%. They like bigger bites on their plate.

If Norway's too far off, they might ask Seattle:

It's the biggest foolishness they can come up with and there are a lot of stupidities going on in the one-party blue state  -- reparations, restrictions on land sales in the name of 'helping' minorities, mandatory folic acid in all tortillas without exception, despite the fact that it will sicken many, local new taxes on parking and garbage collection up the wazoo in many cities.

It's all a great money rush, a pinata, as they call it in Nicaragua, in a state that already has a $70 billion record of fraud that tops Minnesota's, meaning, whatever they get will go to fancy cars, jewelry, expensive trips in a sea of fraud instead of illegal alien health care. They also have a massive budget hole, of $60 billlion, which is about to get bigger as billionaires flee the state. And if anyone thinks this tax is a one-time thing, given the spending habits in Sacramento, they are doubly foolish. Triply so if they think the cash will go to where they say it will go.

The stealing and thuggery associated with this expropriation of wealth will happen. Watch the state go the way of Venezuela.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/12/california_wealth_tax_proposal_has_its_billionaires_preparing_to_flee.html

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