“Wealth is movable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes.” That is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s argument against a billionaire tax on the California ballot. A day after state officials certified the measure, he used the same Substack post to call for a national version.
Newsom, who is expected to run for president in 2028, proposed what he called a “true minimum tax on billionaires” and those with a net worth above $100 million, and described it as a modern Buffett Rule so that people at the top pay at least the rate their own workers do. He did not say what the rate would be.
The federal package
The Guardian reported that the plan has more pieces. Newsom wants to make it illegal for the wealthy to borrow against stock portfolios to fund their lifestyles tax-free. He called for new inheritance rules, warning that wealth transfers among the ultra-wealthy “will lock in a permanent American aristocracy of inherited wealth,” and for corporate tax rates to go back to where they stood before Donald Trump’s first-term cut.
He also proposed a “national public equity fund” so that “every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI.” Revenue, he said, could go toward retraining workers, universal childcare, free college and more healthcare funding. The Guardian noted that Newsom stopped short of the federal wealth taxes long proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The California measure
The California Billionaire Tax Act, brought by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, would levy a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion and fund healthcare, education and food assistance. It gathered more than 1.6 million signatures. Several prominent labor unions and wealthy Silicon Valley residents oppose it.
Newsom said he is voting no because the measure sends almost all its revenue to a single category of state spending, and because billionaires can move. “You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do,” he wrote. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have either threatened to leave California or moved out, the Guardian said.
Critics push back
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who supports the measure, said at a press conference that the flight claim is “hogwash.” “The first quarter of 2026 had the most venture capital coming into California than ever before,” he said. He called Newsom’s plan toothless and said that if the governor truly backs a federal billionaire tax, he should support the California one too.
Others made a narrower point. Lever editor-in-chief David Sirota said Newsom is “talking about income taxes and closing a few loopholes, but not a national version of the WEALTH tax on the ballot in California.” Economist Gabriel Zucman, who backs the measure, said California’s top four billionaires pay only 0.07% of their wealth each year in state income tax.
Sources
- Gavin Newsom urges a national 'billionaires' tax' while fighting one in California
- 'Thinking He Can Fool Everyone,' Newsom Backs One Billionaires Tax But Not Another | Common Dreams
