California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed Monday to stop a proposed tax on the state’s richest people, drawing condemnation from progressives who argue that the expected 2028 presidential hopeful’s literal and figurative friendship with billionaires has no place in a Democratic Party that must center working class people and issues to win.
Last month, the Service Employees International Union—United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) led the introduction of the California Billionaire Tax Act (CBTA), a state ballot initiative that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of roughly 200 billionaires “to protect healthcare, keep hospitals and emergency rooms open, and prevent millions of Californians from losing coverage” amid historic cuts to social safety programs by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration.
Supporters are currently collecting the 900,000 signatures needed for the CBTA to qualify for California’s 2026 ballot. Meanwhile, billionaires including venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Google co-founder Sergey Brin are among those fighting the proposal.
Public opinion polling in recent years has shown that around three-quarters of all California voters, and over 9 in 10 Democrats, back a billionaire wealth tax. So do unions, social and economic justice groups, progressive economists, and congressional lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—another possible presidential aspirant whose support for the CBTA incensed Thiel and other Silicon Valley billionaires like Larry Page and Elon Musk.
However, Newsom finds himself aligned with Thiel—a seven-figure supporter of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns—in opposing the proposed tax.
“This will be defeated—there’s no question in my mind,” Newsom said of the CBTA in a Tuesday interview with the New York Times. “I’ll do what I have to do to protect the state."
Two headlines preview the 2028 Democratic presidential primary – and perfectly reflect the big divide inside the Democratic Party. On one side are those fighting billionaires, on the other side are those who are owned by billionaires.
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— David Sirota (@davidsirota.com) January 13, 2026 at 6:45 AM
Newsom—who has close personal, business, or political ties with billionaires including the Getty family, GAP co-founder Doris Fisher, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Siebel Systems co-founder and cousin-by-marriage Tom Siebel—said he is against the CBTA because it could stifle California’s world-leading technological innovation and drive away businesses and wealthy individuals.
“The impacts are very real—not just substantive economic impacts in terms of the revenue, but start-ups, the indirect impacts of … people questioning long term-commitments,” Newsom told Politico Monday. “That’s not what we need right now, at a time of so much uncertainty."
Not all plutocrats oppose a billionaire wealth tax. Benioff, Warren Buffet, Abigail Disney, Bill Gates, Jensen Huang, Chris Hughes, and George Soros have all advocated higher taxes on the ultrarich.
Huang, CEO of tech titan Nvidia and one of the 10 richest people on the planet, said last week that he is “perfectly fine” with the CBTA.
Gavin Newsom has terrible political instincts. Cozying up to racists like Charlie Kirk. Attacking trans kids. Defending billionaires. When left to his own devices he always picks the wrong path.
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— Oliver Willis (@owillis.bsky.social) January 13, 2026 at 4:53 AM
Responding to Newsom’s opposition to the CBTA, Progressive Mass political director Jonathan Cohn said on Bluesky: “Gavin Newsom wants a future for the Democratic Party that consists of sucking up to conservative billionaires. That’s a path destined for losses.”
Civil rights attorney and professor Alejandra Caraballo also took to Bluesky, writing, “Another reason I’m never Newsom. He’s a billionaires’ errand boy beholden to them.”
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Progressive organizer Jonathan Rosenblum asked on X, “Which side are you on?”
“Gavin Newsom is on the side of the billionaires, not the millions of working people who stand to lose healthcare because of the Trump cuts,” Rosenblum added. “Shamefully typical of the Democratic establishment.”
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
Inb4 the Democratic Party force-nominates him despite clear mass dislike of him, then blames voters for not voting for the person they said they didn’t like
“Shamefully typical of the Democratic establishment.”
Doesn’t that just say it all?
History tends to repeat itself unless people make sure that it doesn’t happen by any means necessary.
Newsom is corrupt neoliberal scum and must never be allowed to work in government again.
Newsom acts exactly as advertised? How could he!
And that why the Democrat’s will force him on us for 2028.
Joke’s on them, there won’t be an election in 2028.
I suppose anything is possible but do you actually think 2028 will be the very first election to not happen?
Like we’ve had elections through every single war and crisis for 250 years so far so I really dunno if that’s actually realistic
I call him Fit Romney
Ripped in half?
It’s a ballot initiative. What’s he going to do if it passes? It’s not like he can veto it.
Just want to say a wealth tax at the state level is a terrible idea. Taxes like this need to be uniform throughout the country. All that will happen is the billionaires will move from California to Texas.
If they want to leave to avoid the tax they should have to move to a different country. Not drive a couple hours away.
It’s not a terrible idea, it just isn’t sufficient. A lot of reforms gets pushed through states first before going national (gay marriage, marijuana, healthcare, etc.). Billionaire wealth tax in California is exactly what we need as a first step.
A tax like this would only hurt California and benefit other states and do nothing for wealth inequality. It is a terrible idea.
I am willing to bet Newsom would be against it at a national level, but he seems to avoid giving his opinions on things, so maybe the rest of the article is still valid.
Sorry, I’m not buying that race to the bottom mentality. The proposed law includes part-time residence because we know billionaires aren’t just going to stop living in California, even if they pay suits to play shell games and make it seem like they’ve left on paper. The state should exhaustively audit the hell out of them. Zuckerberg himself has spent hundreds of millions buying property. Good luck moving that out of the state.
You act like moving to a different state is an impossible task for a billionaire. If they feel that the state is coming after the ear wealth, moving to a different state is a no brainer. Then they also wouldn’t be paying state taxes to California in the future.
The proposed wealth tax is a one time tax, not annual. For someone with over a billion dollars, they can live wherever they want to already. They are in California for particular reasons – spouse, family, friends, businesses located in California. They will not go anywhere. And if they do, then be gone. That also means not “pretending” to live somewhere else while being present in California for 364 days.
The idea that we only tax annually is also an absurd notion. Society needs to progress our taxation structure, not fear the 0.0003%.
Just like all the wealthy people that TOTALLY left NYC following Mamdani’s win
