SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 27 (Our California Times) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will vote no on a billionaire wealth-tax measure that has qualified for the November ballot, arguing the fight should be moved to Washington instead of Sacramento.
Newsom made the case in a Substack post and video message, where he also called for a national billionaire tax and said the issue “belongs at the federal level,” according to the post.
The California initiative would impose a 5% tax on people with assets above $1 billion, according to reporting on the measure language. Newsom warned that wealthy residents can leave California for states such as Texas or Florida to avoid a state-level tax.
In his alternative, Newsom urged Congress to adopt a federal tax on Americans worth more than $100 million, close loopholes for borrowing against appreciated assets, change inheritance rules and raise corporate tax rates back to pre-2017 levels, according to his post.
Newsom had also said earlier this year that he intended to stop the initiative and had been working against it, The New York Times reported in January. The ballot measure is now headed to California voters in November.