{"id":674247,"date":"2026-03-22T17:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T17:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/674247\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T17:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T17:57:13","slug":"billionaires-leaving-california-other-blue-states-over-tax-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/674247\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaires leaving California, other blue states over tax threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>The \u2018People over Billionaires\u2019 march on Dec. 6 heads down Prospect Street in La Jolla in 2025. (Photo by Don Balch\/Special to La Jolla Village News) <\/p>\n

This commentary\u00a0was originally published by CalMatters.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Ayn Rand<\/a>\u00a0was a Russian-born writer who immigrated to the United States in 1926, worked as a screenwriter and playwright and wrote several novels expressing an individualistic philosophy she called \u201cobjectivism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rand\u2019s novels and outspoken ideology were subjects of academic and media debate from the onset of her literary career, but controversy soared with the 1957\u00a0publication of her 1,168-page \u201cAtlas Shrugged<\/a>.\u201d The novel describes a revolt by business executives, inventors, artists and other accomplished Americans who opposed suffocating taxes and regulations.<\/p>\n

Rand likens the rebels to\u00a0Atlas, a figure of Greek mythology<\/a>\u00a0who holds the world on his shoulders. But in Rand\u2019s book, the characters shrug off their burden and retreat to a remote and invisible valley in Colorado dubbed Galt\u2019s Gulch, named for the rebellion leader, John Galt.<\/p>\n

This bit of literary history is offered because we\u2019re seeing a flight of wealthy entrepreneurs from California and other blue states, due to regulations and taxes aimed specifically at them.<\/p>\n

The most obvious example is the relocation of a handful of California\u2019s 200 or so billionaires to such states as Florida, Nevada and Texas in response to a health care union\u2019s\u00a0proposed 5% tax on their wealth<\/a>\u00a0via a ballot measure in November. The proposal, if passed, would generate an\u00a0estimated $100 billion over four years<\/a>, mostly to support health care services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis extraordinary wealth migration is reshaping south Florida: spurring development, tripling real estate prices for trophy properties (even as single-family home prices in the state have stagnated here) and amplifying demand for nannies, private chefs, exclusive golf club memberships and private schools,\u201d the\u00a0Los Angeles Times reported recently<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to kill and eat the golden goose of technology startups in California,\u201d said Garry Tan, CEO of the startup incubator Y Combinator, in a posting on X describing wealth tax advocates.<\/p>\n

A bigger concern, at least in the Capitol, is that if billionaires flee, California\u2019s budget would take a big hit on income tax revenues. The top 1% of California taxpayers now\u00a0supplies nearly half of all income tax collections.<\/a>\u00a0Gov. Gavin Newsom\u00a0opposes the wealth tax<\/a>, calling it \u201creally damaging to the state,\u201d saying it will \u201cdrive away affluent residents,\u201d and promising to work to defeat it.<\/p>\n

As Silicon Valley\u2019s tech tycoons weigh whether to leave California, they are also pledging tens of millions of dollars to oppose the proposed measure and to qualify other measures that would hamstring its effects were it to pass.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cOf course they\u2019re going to oppose this,\u201d Jack Citrin, emeritus professor of political science at UC Berkeley, told the San Jose Mercury News. \u201cThey want to control what they do. They want to live a particular lifestyle. They want to give money to their heirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exodus of billionaires isn\u2019t confined to California.<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s newly elected socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, wants that state\u2019s Legislature to enact a spate of new taxes, but\u00a0Gov. Kathy Hochul is opposed<\/a>, worrying it could accelerate a leakage of wealthy New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs that we have in our state,\u201d she said at a Politico forum last week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Washington, one of the few U.S. states that don\u2019t have an income tax, is on the verge of enacting one.<\/p>\n

Last week, its Legislature gave final approval to a\u00a09.9% tax on incomes of $1 million or more<\/a>, and Gov. Bob Ferguson says he will sign it. As the tax loomed, Howard Schultz, founder of the Starbucks coffee shop chain, announced he\u2019s relocating to Florida. Starbucks\u2019 headquarters is moving to Tennessee.<\/p>\n

It may not be the massive exodus that Rand depicts in Atlas Shrugged, but what\u2019s happening certainly mirrors the novel\u2019s underlying tensions.<\/p>\n

CalMatters<\/a>\u00a0is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Want to submit a letter to the editor, guest column or\u00a0opinion\u00a0piece? Find our guidelines and submission form\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u2018People over Billionaires\u2019 march on Dec. 6 heads down Prospect Street in La Jolla in 2025. (Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":674248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,75090,55728,244,263863,1582,276,3549,7264,618,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-674247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ayn-rand","tag-ballot-measures","tag-billionaires","tag-blue-states","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-taxes","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116274125003624042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}