{"id":48899,"date":"2026-06-28T11:40:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T18:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48899"},"modified":"2026-06-28T11:40:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T18:40:29","slug":"gavin-newsom-opposes-a-california-wealth-tax-hes-proposing-a-national-billionaire-tax-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/06\/28\/gavin-newsom-opposes-a-california-wealth-tax-hes-proposing-a-national-billionaire-tax-instead\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Newsom opposes a California wealth tax. He\u2019s proposing a national billionaire tax instead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By <\/a>Edward-Isaac Dovere<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updated Jun 26, 2026 (edition.cnn.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"California<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

California Governor Gavin Newsom holds press conference in San Francisco, California, May 8, 2026. REUTERS\/Manuel Orbegozo\u00a0Manuel Orbegozo\/Reuters<\/em><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday proposed a national tax on billionaires that he says is the first part of an \u201ceconomic reset for America\u201d agenda, which aides explicitly say is part of his considering to launch a presidential campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe system America\u2019s founders built was designed to prevent the concentration of power in a few hands, but we have allowed that concentration to happen anyway, slowly, in plain sight, over decades,\u201d Newsom writes. \u201cWe can reverse it together, as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is extremely early in the presidential campaign cycle for a policy proposal \u2014 but comes as Democrats continue to embrace economic populism and moves against the wealthy. It also comes as California voters in November will decide on a billionaires\u2019 tax<\/a> after the governor and opponents of the tax late Thursday failed to reach a deal to keep it off the ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom, who is term-limited in California and will leave office in January 2027, lays out his proposal in a Substack post that went live on Friday morning, calling for a minimum tax on anyone worth more than $100 million so that they pay at least the same rate, rather than less, than the average American worker who doesn\u2019t have loopholes and other maneuvers to benefit from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various wealth tax ideas have been proposed by Democrats before, including by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as part of her 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. Newsom says his idea comes out of wanting to create a bulwark against how artificial intelligence will reshape the economy, also proposing what he calls a \u201cnational public equity fund\u201d to give every American, rather than just tech companies and investors, a share in the wealth likely to be produced. That fund, an aide said, would cover worker transition benefits, universal childcare, free higher education and career training, healthcare and a national industrial strategy for AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom also called for rewriting the rules around inheritance, arguing that with what he says will be the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in human history coming over the next 20 years, \u201cif we do not act, that transfer of wealth among the ultra-wealthy will lock in a permanent American <\/strong>aristocracy of inherited wealth, with all the political consequences the founders warned us about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom explains why that he will personally vote no on the California proposal, which would levy a one-time 5% tax on residents with a net worth over $1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backers of the measure gathered more than 870,000 signatures<\/a> and include progressives like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Rep. Ro Khanna \u2013 himself a 2028 contender. Newsom and others fear it would drive businesses out of California, and that the revenue collected would not be spread around widely enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re competing with 50 states,\u201d Newsom told the World Economic Forum<\/a> earlier this year. \u201cCapital flows and move(s). That\u2019s real. It\u2019s not imagined. It\u2019s very, very real.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Substack post, Newsom writes that while he understands \u201cthe anxiety\u201d driving interest in the California proposed tax, it \u201cturns a blind eye to safety-net clinics and reproductive healthcare providers that Planned Parenthood has fought for decades to protect. There is nothing for housing, nothing for childcare, nothing for public safety workers who must answer 911 calls, and nothing for our public universities that have powered California\u2019s economy for a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khanna, however, called Newsom\u2019s proposal a distraction, arguing in a call with reporters on Friday that it didn\u2019t actually constitute a wealth tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaxing the loans on assets is something that the tech oligarchs themselves have proposed,\u201d he said. \u201cThat will raise a fraction of the revenue of an actual wealth tax, the kind that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or I have proposed.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long a presumed candidate for president in 2028, Newsom has begun to show his political hand more explicitly with a video last week about what he said was a Justice Department investigation<\/a> into his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom: \u201cDonald Trump isn\u2019t just coming after me because of my mean tweets, he\u2019s coming after me because I am considering running for president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNN confirmed earlier this month that Jennifer Siebel Newsom is under investigation. However, a person familiar with the probe denied that it was launched by the department\u2019s Trump-appointed leadership in DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story has been updated with additional details.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Edward-Isaac Dovere Updated Jun 26, 2026 (edition.cnn.com) California Governor Gavin Newsom holds press conference in San Francisco, California, May 8, 2026. REUTERS\/Manuel Orbegozo\u00a0Manuel Orbegozo\/Reuters California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday proposed a national tax on billionaires that he says is the first part of an \u201ceconomic reset for America\u201d… 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":[1879,1999],"tags":[2115,255],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48900,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48899\/revisions\/48900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}