California voters have rejected the controversial billionaire tax.
Proposition 40 sought to impose a one-time 5% tax on California billionaires’ assets to try to offset federal healthcare funding cuts. The novel tax on the ultra-wealthy had trailed from the first day of vote counting and was officially rejected on Monday night.
Even as a blue wave washed across the country in the midterm election, the new tax failed to spark enough support in one of the most liberal states.
Opponents of the wealth tax used their much larger war chest of campaign spending to flood television, radio and smartphones with ads. In a state that hasn’t been shy about voting in new taxes in the past, voters heard their message: the wealth tax is a reckless experiment and a tax on everyone, not just billionaires.
Even as a blue wave washed across the country in the midterm election, the new tax failed to spark enough support in one of the most liberal states.
Opponents of the wealth tax used their much larger war chest of campaign spending to flood television, radio and smartphones with ads. In a state that hasn’t been shy about voting in new taxes in the past, voters heard their message: the wealth tax is a reckless experiment and a tax on everyone, not just billionaires.
Roughly 53% of Californians voted against the measure, while 47% supported it, the Associated Press said when it declared that the proposition had failed.
Although the billionaire tax was rejected in the vast majority of counties, the late tally showed major pockets of support in Los Angeles and San Francisco — home to the lion’s share of the state’s 200 billionaires. Orange County, however, voted no by a wide margin.
The political battle over the ballot measure and two competing proposals divided the state and was among the most expensive in California history. More than $400 million had been spent on the three intertwined ballot measures, with more than 90% spent opposing the billionaire tax, according to fundraising disclosures filed with the secretary of state’s office.
Billionaires, notably Google co-founder Sergey Brin, poured hundreds of millions of dollars into groups that funded ads to kill the billionaire tax. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Teachers Assn. and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California are among the powerful Democrats and other Democrat-aligned groups expressing fears that billionaires would flee the state.
Some, including Brin and fellow Google co-founder Larry Page, moved out of California because of the proposal.
An onslaught of advertisements against the billionaire tax argued it could impact all Californians, not just the ultra-wealthy. Teachers, firefighters and other middle-class Californians became the face of their campaigns, fueling growing opposition ahead of election day.
