California’s tax-and-spend crowd just discovered something horrifying: Even in the Golden State, voters occasionally say NO to government reaching deeper into somebody else’s pockets.
California voters rejected [1] Proposition 40, a proposed one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires, by 52.8% to 47.2%. The measure was expected to generate billions for healthcare, education and other government programs.
The proposed billionaire tax would have (supposedly) directed 90% of the revenue toward healthcare programs, including Medi-Cal, mental health services and public health initiatives. The remaining 10% would have gone toward food assistance, education-related programs and administrative costs. While the measure outlined broad spending categories, California’s governor and lawmakers would have retained considerable discretion over which specific programs received the money and how much they got. In other words, taxpayers would have known the general destination of the billions, but not necessarily where every dollar would end up. And we all know that much of it would have been used to give benefits to their ever-growing population of illegal aliens.
The proposal had the backing of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and other progressives eager to find another enormous pile of money to redistribute.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom actually opposed the measure, warning that wealthy residents could flee California and take their tax dollars with them.
For once, California’s political establishment got a reminder that billionaires aren’t government- owned ATMs. Unfortunately for taxpayers, the progressive hunt for somebody else’s money probably isn’t over.