{"id":49984,"date":"2026-09-01T12:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49984"},"modified":"2026-09-01T12:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:42:17","slug":"pelosi-avoids-billionaire-tax-vote-as-wealth-tax-turns-toxic-in-sf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/09\/01\/pelosi-avoids-billionaire-tax-vote-as-wealth-tax-turns-toxic-in-sf\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelosi avoids billionaire tax vote as wealth tax turns toxic in SF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the campaign kickoff for the California Billionaire Tax Act at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, Feb. 18, 2026. Patrick T. Fallon\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Anabel Sosa<\/a><\/strong>, Senior California politics reporter<\/em> Aug 31, 2026 (SFGate.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

California\u2019s billionaire tax proposal<\/a> is splintering the state\u2019s Democratic Party, with party leaders opposing the wealth tax even as voters, and especially young voters, appear eager to increase taxes on the rich. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest division appeared last week when the San Francisco Democratic Party voted to oppose Proposition 40<\/a>, the controversial wealth tax on the November ballot. The decision goes against the state party, which endorsed the plan earlier in the month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Michael Nguyen, a candidate for the SF Board of Supervisors, said the local party\u2019s rejection of the state party\u2019s position on the tax was unprecedented, and he called out local Democrats for supporting the\u00a0ultrawealthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy colleagues chose billionaires over patients, caregivers, seniors, children, and working families,\u201d he said in an email to SFGATE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polling shows that Democrats overwhelmingly support the measure, which would impose a one-time 5% wealth tax on any resident who was worth more than $1 billion and be implemented next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A May poll<\/a> from Public Policy Institute of California found that 54% of likely voters, and 76% of Democrats, were in favor of a billionaire tax. Renters and young people were also highly supportive of the measure, with 71% and 67%, respectively, saying they plan to vote for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more recent\u00a0August poll<\/a>\u00a0found that 70% of Democrats support Prop. 40, and 75% of people ages 18 to 29 support the proposed tax. However, the poll found only 48% of likely voters supported the measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Despite their voters supporting the tax, the majority of party leaders have landed against the ballot proposal. Newsom has urged voters to reject the tax, as has gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra. Both have said the law will backfire by driving the ultrawealthy out of the state. Rep. Ro Khanna, whose district includes Silicon Valley, is one of the only high-profile advocates for the billionaire tax. He has also proposed a national tax on the ultrawealthy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of San Francisco\u2019s top politicians declined to even take a position on the tax at last week\u2019s party meeting. According to endorsement vote tallies<\/a>, state Sen. Scott Wiener abstained from voting on the endorsement and Supervisor Connie Chan was absent. Both are looking ahead to a competitive November congressional run to replace former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ian Krager, a spokesperson for Chan, told SFGATE that Chan had a scheduling conflict with local faith leaders and a fundraiser. Politico Playbook reported earlier that Chan had a fundraiser hosted by Pelosi the same evening\u00a0at the luxury SF restaurant<\/a>\u00a0Julius\u2019 Castle, where tickets ranged from $1,000 to $3,500. Krager said that despite her absence, Chan is in support of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiener, who voted on other issues during last week\u2019s meeting, did not return SFGATE\u2019s request for comment on his abstention. Wiener previously said he opposed<\/a> the billionaire tax measure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pelosi, who was not in attendance but had a representative there, cast a \u201cno endorsement\u201d vote. Assemblymember Matt Haney, who is running for Wiener\u2019s seat in the state Senate, and U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin were absent and did not vote. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and state Treasurer Fiona Ma voted \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Jane Kim, a Bernie Sanders-endorsed progressive candidate for California insurance commissioner, and Gordon Mar, a former member of the Board of Supervisors, supported Proposition 40. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measure, which is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, one of the country\u2019s largest healthcare unions, is aimed at raising revenue to offset federal cuts to Medi-Cal health benefits and to education. The California Budget & Policy Center, a left-leaning nonprofit,\u00a0has said there\u2019s a \u201chigh degree of uncertainty\u201d<\/a>\u00a0over how much money it will raise, but it estimated it would be in the tens of billions.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

In early August, the California Democratic Party endorsed the measure<\/a> in a narrow vote. CalMatters<\/a> reported that Democratic National Committee member David Atkins said voting against it would look bad to voters \u201cwho already believe that we are in the pockets of corporations and billionaires.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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San Francisco is a global capital for the ultrawealthy, with 99 of the world\u2019s billionaires living in the city,\u00a0according to Altrata<\/a>, a data agency that tracks wealthy people. In addition, more than 60% of the city\u2019s residents are renters, according to recent\u00a0census data<\/a>, and about 34% of city residents are under 30 years old<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The divisive measure has even split billionaires. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has dismissed the idea of the tax being damaging to him, even though it could cost him $8 billion. \u201cIn a way, that\u2019s our way of giving back,\u201d Huang said in May<\/a>. But Google co-founder Sergey Brin has framed the prospect of a billionaire tax as an existential threat. He moved last year to<\/a> the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, apparently to avoid the tax, and has donated $82 million to Building a Better California, a political action committee funded by tech and finance executives in an effort to squash<\/a> the tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Gallotta, a committee member of the San Francisco chapter, who was one of four to vote in favor of Prop. 40, said the party\u2019s \u201cno\u201d vote would send signals to already disillusioned constituents. He said at the meeting<\/a> that he believed he was one of the only Democrats in the city who is willing to put a flag in the sand and support taxing the rich, and that any opposition \u201cis nothing more than a gift to the billionaires who are fighting it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Politics<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aug 31, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Anabel Sosa<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior California politics reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anabel Sosa is the senior California politics reporter at SFGATE. She previously covered the statehouse and elections for the Los Angeles Times. She has a masters degree in investigative journalism from UC Berkeley. You can reach her at anabel.sosa@sfgate.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the campaign kickoff for the California Billionaire Tax Act at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, Feb. 18, 2026. Patrick T. Fallon\/AFP via Getty Images By\u00a0Anabel Sosa, Senior California politics reporter Aug 31, 2026 (SFGate.com) California\u2019s billionaire tax proposal is splintering the state\u2019s Democratic Party, with party leaders… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1999,2072],"tags":[2457],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49984"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49986,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49984\/revisions\/49986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}