Gov. Gavin Newsom isn't just fighting the billionaire tax. He's backing Prop. 42, which would ban future wealth taxes in California, too.

Not only has Gov. Gavin Newsom vocally opposed the proposed California billionaire tax, but he also wants to prevent the state from ever passing a wealth tax in the future.

On Friday he endorsed Proposition 42, a ballot measure that would cancel out Proposition 40, the proposed billionaire tax. Prop. 42 would prohibit retroactive taxes like the one-time 5% tax on assets that would apply to any billionaire who lived in California on Jan. 1, 2026 if Prop. 40 passes.

But Prop. 42, funded and placed on the ballot by billionaire and Google co-founder Sergey Brin to defeat the billionaire tax, also would go further, by banning any new taxes on personal property.

That includes pensions and 401K accounts before retirees start drawing retirement income from them. It also includes other investments, financial assets, business holdings, art collections and all other forms of personal wealth that would be affected by the billionaire tax or any future wealth tax.

Newsom’s decision to support Prop. 42 runs counter to his own Democratic Party and some labor unions. It also aligns him with some of the wealthy tech donors with whom he’s maintained longstanding relationships dating back to his days as mayor of San Francisco.

      • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 hour ago

        Well, I don’t live in California. So unless he runs for president, I won’t get to help choose who the nominee is. And I’ll vote for who I want to win in the primary, but I’m not gonna throw away my vote during the general bcz he’s a bad candidate bcz.whoever the Republicans nominate will be a straight up fascist.

      • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
        61·
        13 hours ago

        But it’s not. You can’t eat money, you can’t bring back an uninhabitable planet once you destroy it for pieces of paper. The things that are important, aren’t the things we are focusing on because we are a stupid species that’s going to destroy ourselves. And it will be peak irony.