California decides whether to tax billionaires, a highly-anticipated vote amid rising inequality

California voters are deciding whether to impose a one-off wealth tax of 5% on billionaires, in a ballot vote watched nationally as a possible model for taxing extreme wealth elsewhere. The proposal has become a test of whether voters will back higher taxes on the very wealthy amid rising inequality, despite warnings that billionaires could leave the state.

The measure was proposed by a healthcare union and developed with economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez. A University of California, Berkeley poll published on 29 October found 42% intended to support it, 50% opposed it and 8% were undecided. The article connects the debate to figures showing that the 25 richest US billionaires’ wealth rose by $401 billion from 2014 to 2018, while they paid $13.6 billion in federal taxes, a reported effective rate of 3.4%.