California‘s voters will decide in November whether to impose a tax on the state’s wealthiest residents after the controversial “billionaire tax” proposal garnered enough support to make the ballot—despite fierce opposition from Gov. Gavin Newsom and the two leading candidates running to replace him.
The measure, officially known as California Billionaire Tax Act, would impose a one-time tax of up to 5% on the assets of roughly 200 Californians with a net worth of $1 billion or more who resided in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026.Â
The tax is expected to generate around $100 billion in revenue. The lion’s share of the funding—90%— will support healthcare for low-income households to backfill the Trump Administration’s sweeping Medicaid cuts, with the remaining 10% of the revenue earmarked for education and food assistance programs.
The proposal, spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union—United Healthcare Workers West since October 2025, officially qualified for the ballot on Thursday after supporters were able to collect more than twice the minimum required 875,000 signatures, according to state officials.
Newsom, a Democrat heavily tipped to run for president in 2028, has positioned himself as an implacable opponent of the tax. He has worked behind the scenes with a group of prominent billionaires with deep war chests to try to defeat the measure, arguing that it would drive the state’s top earners out of California and shrink its revenue base.Â
“Wealth is movable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes,” Newsom wrote in an op-ed on his Substack this week, as reported by Politico.
Newsom is not alone in that opinion. Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, and Fox News contributor Steve Hilton, a Republican—the current frontrunners in California’s gubernatorial race—have both spoken out against the billionaire tax, as Newsweek reported.
Speaking on “The Steve Hilton Show” in January, the Donald Trump-endorsed Republican candidate described the measure as the epitome of what he called the “stupidity and the failure of 16 years of one-party rule”. He also warned that the tax could “really hurt” California’s economy and “drive business out of state.”
Meanwhile, Becerra noted that he supports an alternative measure that would extended temporary tax rate increases on the ultra-wealthy to fund healthcare and schools, he is against this specific proposal.
“Yes to real revenue, but no to this initiative,” Becerra reportedly said of the billionaire tax. “Every Californian must pay their fair share, and no billionaire should pay taxes at rates lower than teachers, firefighters or nurses. But this is sketchy policy.”
Billionaires’ exodus out of California
The fears of the outgoing two-term California governor and the two hopefuls on both sides of the aisle seeking to replace him appear to already be materializing, with a string of technology and finance moguls shifting their business interests and residencies out of California, among them Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both of whom recently relocated to Miami.Â
Brin, who has an estimated worth of $264 billion, purchased a $51 million Miami megamansion on Allison Island, while Page snapped up two luxury properties in the area for a combined $173 million.
Paypal and Palantir investor Peter Thiel followed suit, moving some of his investment firm’s operations in December from California to Miami, where he said he’s owned a home since 2020.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also relocated to Florida, spending $170 million on a sprawling mansion on the ultra-exclusive Indian Creek Island—informally known as the “Billionaire Bunker”—where his neighbors include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
More recently, car loan mogul and longtime Los Angeles resident Don Hankey decamped for Las Vegas, telling Forbes in January that he felt he was no longer “wanted” in California due to the proposed wealth tax. Â
Notably, many of the California’s billionaires opposing the tax still retain significant footholds in the Golden State in the form of homes or business properties.
