By Abdul Masih —
Californians never seem to learn: a proposed ballot measure to tax billionaires is having the opposite of effect of its intent. Billionaires are fleeing California early in case of passage (it would tax %5 retroactively on anyone guilty of the crime of being successful).
Google’s Larry Page closed up shop and moved to Delaware — and now we find out he’s not alone. Former Facebook exec Chamath Palihapitiya says $1T in wealth fled the state before the Jan. 1 cutoff.
What that means is that not only do you NOT get the one-time 5% tax, you ALSO don’t get anymore state income tax or business tax.
Abracadabra: Gone. Vanished. Poof. Now you see it, now you…
It is a case study in naivete. Or a case study in socialism, which always brings poverty.
California used to be the promised land for tech titans. No more.
“If they don’t kill this ballot initiative and entice those folks to come back, the California budget will be massively upside down,’’ says Palihapitiya. “Only place to get the money is to cut waste, fraud and abuse or increase taxes on the middle class. The latter is much simpler than the former.”
The measure is NOT even on the ballot yet, and it’s rapidly producing the opposite of the desired effect.
In-N-Out heiress Lynsi Snyder meanwhile relocated to Tennessee and established a second corporate office there.
The SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West labor union, which is leading the push for the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, said the money would help restore health-care funds lost to federal cuts and support public schools in California.
But Gov. Gavin Newsom, famously far left, won’t get behind the measure for the simple reason that he knows what will happen. Ultimately, it will drive away the rich, the state will get poorer, there will be less money for everybody.
