A controversial proposal to tax California’s billionaires has cleared a critical hurdle and is on track to appear before voters in November, according to supporters who announced Sunday they have collected more than 1.5 million signatures.
The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which is backing the measure, said it has gathered nearly twice the roughly 870,000 signatures required to qualify for the ballot. The campaign plans to announce Monday when it will submit the signatures to county elections officials across the state.
The measure would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires—including stocks, art, businesses, collectibles and intellectual property—to backfill federal funding cuts to health services for lower-income people that were signed by President Donald Trump last year. The tax would apply retroactively to billionaires living in California as of January 1.
Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, said in a statement that the tax is a “workable response to a crisis created by Congress” that would “keep emergency rooms open, hospitals staffed and health care systems functioning.”
California has more billionaires than any other state—a few hundred by some estimates. Nearly half the state’s personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in its nearly $350 billion budget, comes from the top 1% of earners.
The proposal has ignited fierce political opposition from Silicon Valley tech titans and created an unusual rift within the Democratic Party. Governor **Gavin Newsom** has strongly opposed the measure, while progressive leaders including Senator Bernie Sanders have endorsed it.
“Our nation will not thrive when so few have so much while so many have so little,” Sanders said on X.
Tech billionaires have battled the proposal with massive donations to campaigns against it, including current and former chief executives from Google, DoorDash, Reddit, LinkedIn and Facebook. Alphabet president Sergey Brin has donated at least $45 million to a Super Pac dedicated to blocking the tax, while Alphabet’s former CEO Eric Schmidt donated more than $3 million.
Several billionaires have already left California ahead of the proposal, including Larry Page, Brin, Peter Thiel, Don Hankey, Travis Kalanick and Steven Spielberg.
Rob Lapsley, president of the bipartisan California Business Roundtable, warned the measure would “undermine our economy, decimate the state budget, drive investment out of the state and ultimately make everyday life more expensive for working families.”
Supporters launched the effort to counter massive healthcare funding cuts that President Trump signed last year. The California Budget & Policy Center estimated that as many as 3.4 million Californians could lose Medi-Cal coverage and rural hospitals could shutter without new funding.
If approved by voters, the proposal would cost the state’s richest residents about $100 billion. Ninety percent of the revenue would fund healthcare programs, with the remaining funds spent on food assistance and education programs. The levy could be paid over five years.
Recent polling shows mixed views among California voters. About half support the measure, while 28% oppose it and 23% remain undecided. Many voters expressed concern about businesses leaving the state and possible future tax increases.
Opponents have backed rival initiatives to weaken the measure, including proposals to ban taxes on personal assets, redirect revenue to schools, and impose strict oversight rules that could invite legal challenges. Under California law, if competing measures pass, the one with the most “yes” votes prevails.
The union representing more than 120,000 healthcare workers, patients and consumers needs to submit signatures to county elections officials by June 24.
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