{"id":21360,"date":"2026-04-27T14:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T14:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/21360\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T14:11:18","slug":"billionaire-tax-backers-say-they-have-enough-signatures-times-two-to-qualify-for-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/21360\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire-tax backers say they have enough signatures \u2014 times two \u2014 to qualify for ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Supporters of a billionaire tax<\/a> said Sunday that they had gathered nearly twice as many signatures as necessary to qualify the controversial proposal for the November ballot. <\/p>\n

Opponents of the proposal argue that it already has driven wealthy Californians<\/a> \u2014 crucial to funding the state\u2019s volatile budget \u2014 to other parts of the nation. Advocates, however, say the proposed tax is critical to compensate for federal healthcare funding cuts that will harm the state\u2019s most vulnerable residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost Californians and most billionaires recognize how reasonable and necessary this proposal is \u2014 both to keep emergency rooms open and to save California businesses from closing,\u201d said Suzanne Jimenez, the chief of staff of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the chief proponent of the effort. \u201cA very small group of the most controversial billionaires on the planet tried to stop\u201d this effort, she added, but when \u201cour growing coalition files these signatures, David will have won the first round against Goliath.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union, which represents more than 120,000 healthcare workers, patients and consumers, launched the effort to counter massive healthcare funding cuts that President Trump signed last year. The California Budget & Policy Center estimated that as many as 3.4 million Californians could lose Medi-Cal coverage, rural hospitals could shutter, and other healthcare services would be slashed unless new funding was found.<\/p>\n

The proposal would impose a one-time tax of up to 5% on taxpayers and trusts with assets valued at more than $1 billion, with some exclusions, such as property. The levy could be paid over five years. Ninety percent of the revenue would fund healthcare programs, and the remaining funds would be spent on food assistance and education programs. The proposal would cost the state\u2019s richest residents about $100 billion if a majority of voters support it. <\/p>\n

Supporters need to submit the signatures of nearly 875,000 registered voters to county elections officials by June 24. They say they have gathered nearly 1.6 million signatures.<\/p>\n

Opponents of the measure, which has divided liberals \u2014 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) supports it<\/a> while Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes it \u2014 said the proposal would destroy California\u2019s economy and budget, while doing nothing to address the state\u2019s underlying financial issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis wealth tax would have a devastating impact on our economy, state budget, and the cost of living for all Californians,\u201d said Rob Lapsley, president of the bipartisan California Business Roundtable. \u201cThe measure doesn\u2019t do anything to reduce the state\u2019s $35-billion-plus budget deficit and does nothing to address the decade of overspending that led to the structural deficit. In fact, because the state relies so heavily on high-income-earner tax revenue, this measure could lead to reduced budget revenue in the long term as highly mobile wealthy individuals leave the state to avoid this new tax.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also argued that the proposal could result in higher taxes for all Californians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an everyone tax that is called a billionaire tax,\u201d Lapsley said, \u201cand we will ensure Californians understand the truth on the devastating consequences this initiative will have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supporters of a billionaire tax said Sunday that they had gathered nearly twice as many signatures as necessary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[738,12945,12946,12942,895,5498,12943,12948,8,4598,1375,12944,9,12947,542,148,7,1691],"class_list":{"0":"post-21360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-ballot","9":"tag-billionaire-tax","10":"tag-california-budget","11":"tag-controversial-proposal","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-effort","14":"tag-enough-signature","15":"tag-federal-healthcare-funding-cut","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-last-year","18":"tag-measure","19":"tag-most-californians","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-opponent","22":"tag-president-trump","23":"tag-state","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-voter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116477079242335125","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}