Sen. Bernie Sanders will formally kick off a campaign next week to place a one-time 5% tax on California billionaires’ assets, setting up a major political battle in the nation’s most populous state.
The independent senator from Vermont will appear at the Wiltern in Los Angeles on February 18 alongside musical acts to launch the campaign for the November ballot initiative. The controversial proposal would impose a tax on approximately 250 Californians whose net worth exceeds $1 billion.
“This initiative would provide the necessary funding to prevent over 3 million working-class Californians from losing the healthcare they currently have — and would help prevent the closures of California hospitals and emergency rooms,” Sanders said in a statement released to the Los Angeles Times.
The measure, proposed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), would require 90% of the revenue to go toward healthcare and support the Medi-Cal program. Supporters need to gather nearly 875,000 signatures by June 24 for the measure to qualify for the November ballot.
Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff at SEIU-UHW, called the measure an “emergency tax” that would likely only affect “just over 200 billionaires” in California who, she claimed, would “literally make up this money in about six months.”
The proposal has created sharp divisions among Democrats. Governor Gavin Newsom has lined up in opposition, telling Politico the measure is “really damaging to the state” and predicting voters will reject it. Several Democratic candidates hoping to succeed the termed-out governor also oppose the tax, including former Rep. Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
“I don’t think it will work,” Mahan said. “My concern is for middle class families who will be asked to pay more in taxes if we drive the tech industry out of California.”
On the other side, Rep. Ro Khanna, whose Silicon Valley district would be disproportionately affected, has emerged as a prominent supporter.
“The income inequality in California is staggering where billionaire wealth has exploded by 158 percent in the last 3 years yet over 2 million Californians will lose healthcare and over 200,000 health care workers will lose their jobs,” Khanna said in a statement.
Billionaire gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer has also backed the effort, arguing it would help close income inequality gaps.
Critics of the wealth tax have pointed to reports that some wealthy individuals, including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have already left the state. Tech billionaire Peter Thiel has reportedly spent millions on efforts to prevent the measure from reaching the ballot.
According to a December estimate by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, the state would “collect tens of billions of dollars from the wealth tax” but could also face “a likely ongoing decrease in state income tax revenues” costing “hundreds of millions of dollars or more per year” if billionaires decide to leave California.
Sanders, who won California’s 2020 Democratic presidential primary and has a strong base of support in the state, has positioned the tax as a matter of basic fairness.
“It should be common sense that the billionaires pay just slightly more so that entire communities can preserve access to life-saving medical care,” Sanders said.
Recent Comments