Voters in California this fall will have to determine whether the state will institute a billionaire tax. Advocates of this proposal have been pushing for these kinds of money grabs for decades—and their arguments often run the same. The base is narrow, the lifespan is limited, the cause is sympathetic.
But the numbers paint a bleaker picture. Talent and capital will flee, and the taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. will be in court before the ink can dry. All Californians will feel the effect, and the pitfalls that will come are not worth the risk.
Simply titled the “2026 Billionaire Tax Act,” the ballot measure calls for a one-time tax of 5 percent on the net worth of the state’s billionaires. It sounds simple. But due to aggressive design choices and a host of drafting errors, this 5 percent number should be viewed with as much skepticism as the claim that this would be a one-time event.
This is a preview of our full op-ed originally published in The Orange County Register.
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