SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 27 (Our California Times) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will vote no on a billionaire wealth-tax measure that has qualified for the November ballot, while urging Congress to impose a national tax on billionaires instead.
In a Substack post and video message, Newsom wrote that the fight “belongs at the federal level” and argued that billionaires can move to states such as Texas or Florida to avoid a state tax.
The ballot measure would impose a one-time 5% tax on Californians with assets above $1 billion, according to reporting on the initiative. Coverage said the proposal advanced through California’s ballot process after qualifying for the November election.
Newsom’s alternative would create a federal minimum tax on Americans worth more than $100 million, close loopholes for borrowing against appreciated assets, change inheritance rules and raise corporate taxes back to pre-2017 levels, according to his post.
In January, Newsom told The New York Times he intended to stop the proposal and had been working behind the scenes against it.
