Newsom, billionaires face costly battle as California wealth tax advances

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : " The levy will also gauge the broader voter appetite for taxing extreme wealth.
57% : "It is time for a national billionaires' tax," Newsom said.
57% : A May poll from Public Policy Institute for California found the tax is supported by 54% of likely voters.
56% : The idea was to levy a one-time 5% tax on a billionaire's net worth, from their art collection to company stock, raising as much as $100 billion.
55% : Google co-founder Brin, the world's third richest person, has so far spent more than $80 million to fund a group that's supporting the anti-wealth tax ballot measures -- after moving to Nevada.
48% : " Tech billionaires are particularly concerned about a provision of the wealth tax they say would allow the state to value their net worth based on the voting control percentage of a company, rather than their actual economic stake.
46% : A group linked to billionaire Sergey Brin is bankrolling other ballot measures that could nullify the wealth tax if one of them receives more votes.
46% : " The tax was first floated in October as a way to backfill federal cuts to healthcare funding.
46% : That would potentially raise how much tax they have to pay and could force them to divest even further in order to raise cash.
45% : The wealth tax will face a deep-pocketed and growing opposition campaign not just from billionaires and Newsom but also from other Democratic-aligned groups, including the California chapter of Planned Parenthood and other unions.
45% : The anti-wealth tax measures will also be put before voters in November.
44% : Newsom didn't propose a rate for a federal wealth tax or outline how it would work, including what exactly would be taxed.
42% : Last week, the group proposing the measure tried pushing for a compromise by lowering the tax rate on billionaires from 5% to 2%.
40% : The decision sets up a costly showdown at the November general election, with some of the world's richest people willing to spend millions of dollars to stop the tax.
39% : More recently, San Francisco voters rejected a proposal to increase taxes on large businesses with highly-paid CEOs.
38% : Both have also proposed a federal tax, which has little chance of passing in the Trump administration.
32% : He instead called for a federal tax on billionaires and those worth more than $100 million, changes to inheritance rules and closing tax loopholes on wealthy people borrowing against their assets, in a lengthy Substack post.
31% : Governor Gavin Newsom is calling for a federal tax on billionaires after failing to stop a California wealth tax from reaching the November ballot, setting up a high-profile test of whether voters will back one of the nation's most aggressive efforts to tax the rich.
23% : "If you're opposed to this tax, you're on the side of trickle-down economics," Khanna said, calling concerns about capital flight from the state "hogwash."

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