The most important thing aboutCalifornia’s proposed billionaire wealth taxis not that it targets billionaires.
It is that it creates a new pathway for Sacramento politicians to tax ordinary wealth in the future without going back to voters statewide.
That is the part voters need to understand before they get distracted by the campaign’s sales pitch.
Today,Californians have a critical protection: If the state wants to impose this kind of direct tax on wealth, it needs voter approval. This measure changes that.
It asks voters to approve a one-time 5% tax on the property of billionaires — but buried in the structureis something far broader. Once this authority exists, the legislature can build on it by a two-thirds vote.
And Democrats already control well over two-thirds of both houses of the California Legislature.
So the real question is not whether billionaires can afford it. The real question iswhether voters are about to hand Sacramento new powerover everyone’s net worth.
Backers of the measure say they have collected 1.5 million signatures, around twice the number needed to qualify for the November ballot. That makes this measure highly likely to appear before California voters.
The pitch will be simple: Billionaires have too much money, California has too many needs, and a 5% tax on extreme wealth is only fair.
That argument is politically useful, because it makes the measure sound narrow.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
